Howard E. Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series

A Environmental Studies Colloquium Series talk titled “Adaptation, Resilience, and Transformation in Maine’s Coastal Communities” by Heather M. Leslie, Director, University of Maine’s marine laboratory, Darling Marine Center, and Professor of Marine Sciences, UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences.

Coastal communities’ ability to adapt to socioeconomic and environmental change is a subject of increasing attention. The research group I co-lead with Joshua Stoll uses a social-ecological systems framework to investigate, map, and analyze the capacity for sustaining fishing-dependent, place-based communities, including the state of Maine, USA. I will describe how we conduct this research together with our students and community partners, by integrating diverse biophysical and social science approaches at multiple spatial scales. I will share three vignettes to illustrate how diverse disciplines, institutions and worldviews can be leveraged to advance ecosystem science and stewardship, and to train the next generation of marine science and policy professionals. Our research aims to contribute to better understanding of the adaptive capacity, resilience, and risk and opportunities posed by transformation in coastal communities and underscores the need for ecosystem-based approaches to studying and supporting adaptation in fisheries-dependent communities in Maine and beyond.

Heather is Director of the University of Maine’s marine laboratory, Darling Marine Center, and Professor of Marine Sciences in UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences. She studies the drivers of ecological and social processes in marine systems, and how to more effectively connect science to policy and management. Together with co-editor Karen McLeod and more than 40 contributing authors, she published Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans in 2009. This collaborative project catalyzed Heather’s engagement in the science and practice of EBM in the US and Mexico, in particular. While this seminar will focus on her most recent work in Maine, information about her EBM-related research in Mexico and elsewhere is available at https://umaine.edu/leslie-lab/

This talk will be VIRTUAL please click here to join via zoom or visit go/woodincolloquiumseries for more information.