By Stefania IreneMarthakis
Bailey McLaughlin is a Ph.D.studentin Ecology andEnvironmentalSciences at the University of Maine. McLaughlin’s interest in bigglobal change questionsregardinghow biodiversity might be impacted by climate change and other global change drivers leadher to work with Brian McGill,Professor of Ecological Modelingin theSchool of Biology and Ecologywitha joint appointment at the Sen. George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions.
As a graduate research assistant in McGill’s lab, McLaughlinis part of the NSF EPSCoR RII Track-2 grant:Biodiversity and Rural Response to Climate Change Using Data Analysis (), which asks large-scale questions on how species might be impacted by and respond to global change.
McLaughlingrew up on Long Island—where her dad is a part-time shell fisherman—exploring the different corners of the marine environment. Over the years, McLaughlin has seen that system change when she goes back home.
“I got hooked on using science as a tool to understand the environment, which was interesting to me from the ecology side but also because the traditions of my family were tied to that landscape,” McLaughlin said.
Now working within terrestrial ecosystemson theBarracudaproject, McLaughlin is helpingto aggregate data for targetorganisms (e.g., trees, birds, agricultural crops) as well as climate and data layers that will be used to help create these short-term forecasts.
“We need occurrence data, but we also need additional information for the mechanistic models, so we’re getting more species-specific data about life history, like population and age-to-maturity data, to understand more so how these specific species might respond,” McLaughlin explained.
As an ecologist, McLaughlin is interested in the biodiversity aspect of Barracuda,but knows the human dimension is a criticalcomponent of the project.
“Once we know what biodiversity is going to do,as well asthe repercussions of climate change on the landscape,we can look atincorporating the human dimensionto that in terms of adaptation and how people,whorelyon these variousecological resources,might respond,” McLaughlin stated.
Ultimately, McLaughlin’s goal is to be a professor at a research institution, to teachand continue to do research, to design a research programlikeBarracuda that combinesinterestingscience withaninterdisciplinary approach.
“I do enjoy interdisciplinary work. I think it’s exciting to see how other people think through similarproblems,”McLaughlinadded.
“Ecology as a discipline is pretty broad. There’s a lot of differentthings that people work on, so even within the discipline, sometimes Ihave toremind myself whata specificterm meansfora specificsub-discipline,whichI think is a great exercise in broadening my perspective and understanding.Imight think aboutsomething ina particularway,but an ecologist that worksina differentsystemorat a differentscalemightthinkabout it inaslightlydifferentway,” McLaughlin explained.“I think when you add other disciplines into the mix,there isa similar effect. It really helpstoopen your eyes to other ways ofthinking, doing things,and approaching problems. It allows you to add your layer ofexpertise or specialty onto theirs as well.”
