Caroline Nurse

Climate Change Institute

The Climate Change Institute (CCI) is the hub of climate change research at the University of Maine. It is a trusted resource for scientific information and accessible tools related to the climate sciences used throughout the state of Maine and around the world. CCI faculty, students, and staff focus on innovative graduate education and interdisciplinary research involving both domestic and international exploration. These studies contribute to the understanding of the variability of Earth's climate, the complex interconnections between climate, humans and the natural world, and the unique challenge of abrupt climate change. The discoveries made by CCI scientists strengthen the scientific foundation upon which evidence-based solutions to the world's most pressing environmental problems will be built, and they provide the basis for our many partnerships with diverse stakeholders to create pathways to a climate resilient future. Institute investigations span the last 2 million years to the present, a time of numerous glacial/interglacial cycles and abrupt changes in climate. Research activities include field, laboratory, and modeling studies that focus on the timing, causes, and mechanisms of natural and anthropogenically forced climate change, and on the effects of past climate changes on the physical, biological, chemical, social, and economic conditions of the planet. Institute research is supported by grants from a variety of sources including the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the W.M. Keck Foundation, and endowments from the Bingham Trust and the Dan and Betty Churchill Exploration Fund and others.