Science in Acadia National Park, 2021

A look back at 2021, from Acadia National Park.

2021 was a busy year for research in Acadia National Park. Scientists worked on 84 projects, close to the park's record and a strong rebound from 2020, when COVID-19 slowed research. 37 of them (44%) were new, many led by researchers new to the park — among them three new Second Century Stewardship Fellows, new Schoodic Institute technicians and interns, a Scientist-in-Parks intern, a team from the University of Rhode Island, and students from College of the Atlantic, the University of Maine and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

What was studied

Research spanned plants and animals, fresh water and the sea, visitors and cultural resources. Scientists studied:

• bats, threatened by white-nose syndrome;
• changes in the intertidal zone, especially rockweed, which forms forest-like habitat on Maine's rocky shores;
• spotted salamanders that breed in salty pools on the coast — nobody knows how this unusual population copes with the salt;
• ways to protect the park's lakes from harmful algal blooms.

Wabanaki scientists led work of their own. Wabanaki ecologists studied how traditional harvesting affects sweetgrass, a salt-marsh plant used in basketmaking, and Wabanaki archaeologists re-examined and reinterpreted past archaeological finds in Acadia — reframing the park's story, reclaiming culture and strengthening park science.

The projects followed the park's priorities. Intertidal ecosystems are perhaps Acadia's most visited, most photographed and fastest-changing. Visitor studies fed into the park's new transportation plan, and plant research included a major vegetation restoration study on the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the park's highest peak.

Examples from the permits

The research permits for 2021 give a sense of the range:

• Wildlife: environmental DNA for threatened turtles; a possible bat hibernaculum under Duck Brook Bridge; salamander and amphibian migrations on Duck Brook Road; nearshore and forest bird monitoring, bird sound recording and the fall raptor count; loons; snowy owls wintering on the summits; invasive fishes in lake food webs; the bridle shiner.
• Fresh water and air: harmful algal blooms; airborne toxics; dissolved organic carbon in lakes; volunteer brook-trout water surveys; mercury in dragonflies; the Schoodic climate station; the Breakneck Brook dam failure and debris flow.
• The shore and sea: tide-pool history; coastal spruce-fir forests facing sea-level rise; salt-marsh elevation; clams and pH in mudflats; microplastics; sea stars; ocean acidification recorded in coralline algae; seaweed diversity compared with historical surveys; crabs on Schoodic Peninsula; mapping the seafloor.
• Plants: striped maple sex expression; jack and pitch pine on Cadillac; climate-resilient restoration on Cadillac's summit; climate refugia on Schoodic; Bass Harbor Marsh restoration; forest health.
• Pests and disease: red pine health; emerald ash borer; southern pine beetle; beech leaf disease.
• Visitors: visitor profiles and economic impact; preventing wildlife feeding by campers; e-bikes; traffic and mobility on the Park Loop Road; the reservation system; the social value of the park's waters.
• Culture: Maine's Indigenous fire history, to inform forest management.

Publications

The activity was not only in the field. Scientists published at least 43 papers and reports using data or fieldwork from Acadia, more than in most years — perhaps because COVID-19 gave people time to analyse and write, or because research in the park has grown over the past decade. They covered water quality, trends in bird abundance, the spread of invasive species and the pandemic's effects on the park. Three used social media posts — to trace how COVID-19 changed tourists' movements, to relate visitation to search and rescue, and to study what the park means to people. Several are helping managers adjust to fast-changing conditions.

A selection, by theme:

• Wildlife and biodiversity — Doser et al., "Trends in bird abundance differ among protected areas but not bird guilds," Ecological Applications; Crausbay et al., "A science agenda to inform natural resource management decisions in an era of ecological transformation," BioScience.
• Fresh water, air and climate — Pilla et al., "Global data set of long-term summertime vertical temperature profiles in 153 lakes," Scientific Data.
• Intertidal and marine — Williams et al., "Ocean acidification reduces skeletal density of hardground-forming high-latitude crustose coralline algae," Geophysical Research Letters; Gassett et al., "Community science for coastal acidification monitoring and research," Coastal Management.
• Plants — Baumflek et al., on Indigenous plant stewardship in Maine and New Brunswick, Society and Natural Resources; Karasov-Olson et al., on assessing the risks of managed relocation as a climate adaptation, National Park Service Natural Resource Report.
• Pests and invasive species — Miller et al., "Long-term trends indicate that invasive plants are pervasive and increasing in eastern national parks," Ecological Applications; Guarnieri et al., on invasive European fire ants and blacklegged ticks, PLOS ONE.
• Visitors — Horne et al., on visitors' perceptions of climate-change risk in Acadia, Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism; Lu et al., on visitation, social media and search and rescue, Wilderness & Environmental Medicine; Worcester Polytechnic Institute student reports on e-bikes on the carriage roads and traffic on Ocean Drive.
• Cultural resources — Newsom, Dana Lolar and St. John, "In conversation with the ancestors: Indigenizing archeological narratives at Acadia National Park, Maine," Genealogy.
• Management — Miller-Rushing et al., "COVID-19 pandemic impacts on conservation research, management, and public engagement in US national parks," Biological Conservation.

More research is on Acadia's Science and Research page; researchers can apply through the park's research permit page, and stories from across the parks are on the NPS Science page.

Sources

• National Park Service, Acadia National Park, Science in Acadia, 2021. The article's photograph, credited to Schoodic Institute, is not reproduced.