Our “Wild Maine” series of nature programs, in partnership with the Camden Public Library, continues in April as the library celebrates “Maritime Month.” This month’s talk features Aly McKnight, an Associate Professor of Wildlife and Fisheries Management in the Hybrid Learning Program at Unity College. McKnight’s presentation will explore how the study of seabirds can shed light on events occurring beneath the opaque sea surface.
As highly visible top predators in otherwise hard-to-observe marine ecosystems, seabirds have great potential to serve as “ecosystem indicators” for the world’s oceans. McKnight will discuss how marine bird research is conducted, and what birds have told us so far about the state of global oceans and their resources.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Aly McKnight is a resident of Winterport, Maine. Before teaching at Unity College, she worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service for over a decade on a number of marine bird research and monitoring projects in Prince William Sound, Alaska. She also worked on the multi-agency Gulf of Maine Coastal Ecosystem Survey from 2013-2015. Her primary research interest is population dynamics of birds in marine systems.