Climate Trends in the Casco Bay Region

• Main Author: Schauffler, Marina, PhD
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: USM Digital Commons 2015
• Subjects: climate change; temperature; precipitation; acidification; sea level rise; CBEP; Ocean Acidification; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cbep-publications/28; https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/context/cbep-publications/article/1027/viewcontent/CBEP_Climate_Trends_in_the_Casco_Bay_Region_2.pdf

The Casco Bay region is vulnerable to all seven of the climate stressors identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA): warmer summers; warmer winters; warmer waters; increased drought; increased storminess (evident in higher total precipitation, frequency and intensity); sea-level rise; and ocean acidification (US EPA 2014). These climate stressors do not operate in isolation. Compounding their impacts are factors such as population growth, habitat fragmentation and destruction, and resource depletion that can further tax ecosystems and species. This document summarizes current scientific evidence of these trends within Maine and, where possible, within the Casco Bay watershed (which coincides closely with geographical boundary of Cumberland County).