ORONO, Maine — Researchers from the University of Maine in Orono and four other New England-based research institutions will get $1.1 million from the National Science Foundation for a major research project.
They'll be looking at the effects of ocean warming on a type of plankton that's known to be a major food source for fish from herring to whales in the Gulf of Maine.
"The expectation from the statistical analysis is that this species may well disappear and that would have a pretty dramatic effect on the Gulf of Maine food web," says project coordinator Jeffrey Runge.
Other research teams involved are from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, the University of New Hampshire and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science in East Boothbay.
The research is set to last for three years.