Climate change adaptation talk set for April 10

ORONO — The Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine plans to host a talk, “Rural Maine Feels the Heat,” at 3 p.m. Monday, April 10.

The talk will be offered both remotely via Zoom and in person at 107 Norman Smith Hall on the UMaine campus.

Speaker Brian McGill, professor at the Mitchell Center and the School of Biology and Ecology at UMaine, will present ongoing efforts and preliminary results from an NSF-funded research project to increase Maine and Vermont’s climate change adaptation planning and capacity.

Much of Maine’s economy is dependent on natural resources, whether directly through harvesting or indirectly through tourism. Climate change will require substantial adaptation, not just from crops, trees and wildlife, but also from the rural communities whose economies depend upon them, according to a news release from Ruth Hallsworth at the center.

McGill is the lead investigator of an interdisciplinary grant studying adaptation to climate change in Maine and Vermont that involves eight faculty and three universities (UMaine, University of Maine at Augusta, University of Vermont), as well as stakeholders from conservation and agriculture as advisors.

McGill will discuss the models leading to near-term, policy-relevant predictions of range shifts of crops and conservation targets in response to climate change; changing phenology of crops and resulting changing agricultural practices; national analysis of farmer adaptive behaviors such as crop switching; and modeling of the impact of social networks on adaptation.

All talks in the Mitchell Center’s Sustainability Talks series are free. Registration is required to attend remotely; to register and receive connection information, visit umaine.edu.

Face coverings are required for all attending the sustainability talks. For the latest UMaine health and safety guidance, see umaine.edu/return.

Updates for this event will be posted to the event webpage. To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Hallsworth at 207-581-3196 or hallsworth@maine.edu.