The Bowdoin Marine Laboratory is the scientific component of Bowdoin’s Coastal Studies Center. Our amazing site includes 118 acres of coastal spruce-pine forest and 8 miles of coastline. Our accessible location, and diversity of natural habitats opens up a wide range of marine, estuarine, and terrestrial research and teaching possibilities.
As the Bowdoin Marine Laboratory’s new Director, my job is to facilitate an expansion of research and teaching programs. Our growth will require new infrastructure and instrumentation. I am working with the Bowdoin administration, faculty, and staff on a strategic plan that includes a new “dry” teaching and research building, new housing, and new instrumentation to monitor climate change. This year we will begin work increasing the capabilities of our wet lab and building our small boat program. Our short history includes outstanding research from our Bowdoin community and friends from other institutions (see our list of publications). I would like to build on this intellectual platform and grow the breadth and depth of the research and teaching activities anchored by the BML by recruiting new researchers and new students from Bowdoin and beyond.
The Bowdoin Marine Laboratory has an outstanding geographical and ecological position for understanding the biological impacts of climate change. We are located within the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, a historically cold and productive body of water that has undergone a recent warming. Our coastal location and 8 km shoreline on Harpswell Sound, provide immediate access to tidally driven coastal and estuarine habitats, predicted to uniquely respond to increased warming due to high productivity and close linkages with terrestrial systems. Speaking of land, our peninsula on Orr’s Island includes 118 acres of upland forest, and I am strongly encouraging new courses and research that can capitalize on the terrestrial side of the Coastal Studies Center on Orr’s Island.
Come visit us on Orr’s Island to tour the facilities and see our stunning linkages between land and sea.
Dave Carlon, Director of the Bowdoin Marine Laboratory [email protected]