The Wrack
The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog, our collective logbook on the web.
The Wrack is the Wells Reserve blog, our collective logbook on the web.
With the impressive amounts of rain in the last month or so, and some unusually warm temperatures in March and early April, I thought I would share some of the more interesting weather trends we recorded through our System Wide Monitoring Program here at the reserve. March was the wettest and warmest on record for the state of Maine!
Whew! Nothing like some February rain showers huh? It's been a "weird" winter for lack of a more "technical" term.....
Here are some numbers from the most recent "Blast" that occured Thursday Feb 25 through early morning of February 26th 2010. (All data was collected on the SWMP Meteorological Station behind the Maine Coastal Ecology Center.)
May’s flooding washed away two of the Reserve’s water data-logger units used for the System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). Replacing the units was well timed, though, as equipment upgrades now allow public access to “real-time” data on weather and water quality.
Too many nutrients can cause more algae growth than an estuary can support. Excess algae leads to decreased oxygen in the water and other symptoms that if left unchecked can completely devastate a marsh. This process is known as eutrophication. Scientists are now developing a tool to help address eutrophication in estuaries.
The Wells Reserve is collaborating with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) to determine the extent of eutrophication in five northeastern reserves.