Past Workshops
Blue carbon habitat mapping in Maine and the Gulf of Maine Region
On April 4, 2022, Maine Blue Carbon Network hosted a workshop on blue carbon habitat mapping in the Gulf of Maine Region with presentations from four speakers:
Kristen Puryear, Maine Natural Areas Program, is an Ecologist who works statewide with public and private landowners to provide rare plant and natural community information for conservation, restoration, and management planning. Kristen reviewed the methods MNAP has used to map Maine’s 22,000 acres of tidal marsh and compare the outcomes, benefits, and data gaps with other remote-based tidal marsh mapping data available for the state. View Kristen's slides.
Jamie Carter, NOAA Office of Coastal Management, is a geospatial analyst with NOAA's Office for Coastal Management and works on land cover and marsh habitat mapping efforts throughout the Northeast region and United States. Jamie presented on NOAA’s national land cover mapping and monitoring activities through its Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). This work uses remotely sensed data and artificial intelligence to map a wide range of cover types across the country, with a particular emphasis on wetlands. View Jamie's slides.
Angela Brewer, Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection, is a Biologist within the Division of Environmental Assessment of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Her presentation outlined the history and anticipated future of coastal seagrass and salt marsh mapping in Maine and potential applications for and challenges associated with new technologies. The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) mapped intertidal and subtidal eelgrass along Maine’s coastline during the 1990s and 2000s using plane-acquired orthoimagery. Since 2013, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has continued efforts to inventory eelgrass on a more focused geographic scope, predominantly in Casco Bay. View Angie's slides.
Nichole Price, Bigelow Laboratory, is a benthic marine ecologist with interest in how global change phenomena, like ocean acidification and warming, can alter bottom-dwelling species interactions, community dynamics, and ecosystem function in shallow coastal regimes. Nichole presented information about the blue carbon potential of seaweed. Macroalgae, or seaweeds, are garnering much media attention as an overlooked opportunity for carbon capture, but robust protocols for quantifying carbon storage rates and longevity for farmed seaweeds are still in development. New environmental DNA (eDNA) tools may allow for rigorous measurement and evaluation of species-specific sequestration rates to elucidate when, where, and under what conditions seaweeds could become part of blue carbon accounting.
Moderator: Jeremy Gabrielson (Maine Coast Heritage Trust)