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Penobscot River Science & Research
Over 450 references related to the Penobscot River are now available and searchable online via PEARL. The bibliography was compiled as part of the Penobscot River Synthesis project. In addition, information from the references has been summarized into seven "background" papers on the Penobscot watershed published in the Penobscot Synthesis section of PEARL.
“With these major objectives of the synthesis completed, the project and related Web page provide a valuable resource for scientists and others interested in the river and the proposed restoration project. As a result, the Synthesis Web page has been reorganized as a "home base" for the Penobscot River Science Steering Committee as well as current research projects," says Catherine Schmitt, coordinator of the Synthesis.
With funding from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Penobscot Synthesis will continue through 2007, serving as a clearinghouse for environmental information and current scientific efforts related to the Penobscot River. For more information, contact Catherine Schmitt.
Figure 1: Penobscot River Synthesis
Freshwater Biodiversity in Maine
The Maine Aquatic Biodiversity Project (MABP) was a 3-year effort to compile, analyze and synthesize available information on the plants, macro-invertebrates, fish, amphibians and reptiles that live in Maine’s freshwater ecosystems. MABP produced an extensive database containing over 200,000 geo-referenced taxonomic records. PEARL now features key MABP information within the Freshwater Biodiversity focus topic.
Figure 2: Freshwater Biodiversity home page
From the Freshwater Biodiversity home page (Fig. 2), you can access a series of pages that focus on major taxonomic groups: plants, fish, amphibians/reptiles, invertebrates (Fig. 3).
Figure 3: Invertebrate groups currently featured in PEARL
For each taxonomic group, PEARL provides (a) species checklists, (b) species distribution maps, (c) links to key data sets in the PEARL Data Bank, and (d) key references. For example, the checklist of aquatic plants indicates the counties from which each species has been recorded (Fig. 4).
Figure 4: Section of checklist of Maine’s aquatic macrophyte species
From the fish species checklist, you can link directly to a distribution map for each species. For example, Fig. 5 shows locations from which brown trout has been recorded in the state. In addition to mapping each species’ distribution, PEARL displays a graph to show which lakes – by size and elevation – the species inhabits. Brown trout lakes, for example, are typically > 10 acres and are found at an elevation below 800 ft. Distribution maps for invertebrate groups include odonates (Fig. 6; data from the Maine Damselfly and Dragonfly Survey), freshwater mussels and caddisflies. Figure 7 shows the distribution maps for six of Maine’s eight non-marine turtle species.
Figure 5: Distribution of brown trout in Maine.
Figure 6: Odonate (damselfly – dragonfly) distribution maps.
Figure 7: Turtle distribution maps.
For each major taxonomic group, the Freshwater Biodiversity pages also include key reports and journal articles, many with access to full-text documents (Fig. 8).
Figure 8: Section of page listing key fish references.
Coming to the Freshwater Biodiversity pages in 2007!
- Full-text version of the MABP final report.
- Information syntheses, including:
• Spatial patterns in the composition of plant, fish and invertebrate communities in Maine;
• Analysis of patterns of fish stocking in Maine lakes;
• Patterns of native minnow species richness;
• Changes in lake fish communities over the past 60 years;
• Communities of high-elevation lakes;
• Distribution and characteristics of fishless lakes;
• The influence of elevation and alkalinity on the distribution aquatic plant species;
• Key threats to Maine’s freshwater ecosystems and communities;
• and much more...
- New data sets.
For more information on MABP, contact Peter Vaux.
Frequently-Asked Questions
Who provides data to PEARL?
PEARL currently hosts data from state and federal agencies, NGOs, university researchers, students and other individuals. Anyone with quality data can host their information on PEARL. Data providers may send their data to the PEARL team for upload. Alternatively, with password access and basic training, providers can upload data themselves from their own computer and then configure the on-line appearance of those data tables. Similarly, providers themselves can update their tables at any time - and even remove their data entirely from PEARL. If you have data that you would like to see made available to anyone in the world with internet access, please contact Peter Vaux.
Do PEARL data have to address certain topics?
No. PEARL accepts any type of environmental data from Maine. Data can be contemporary or historical, but should be geo-referenced. All data sets are tagged by information category (e.g. water quality, fauna, etc) and so are automatically sorted and displayed within the appropriate information grouping.
For questions, comments or more information about PEARL, contact PEARL@maine.edu.
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