The Wrack

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!

Hello again, Well another strong storm system battered the Maine coast again this past weekend. Here is a brief synopsis of that storm data courtesy of the System Wide Monitoring Program. All data from 3/13 at 11pm to 3/15 at 3pm was collected on the SWMP Meteorological Station located behind the Coastal Ecology Center. We had 6.7 inches of rain fall between late Saturday night (13th) into mid…

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.

The NERR system just released a 10th anniversary report on the activities, achievements, and growth of the System-Wide Monitoring Program. You can download the PDF at the NERRS website. You can learn more about the program by following the links under Monitoring on that site. Visit our Monitoring page …