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Elements in downtown Biddeford is known for books, coffee, beer, and big views of the city’s historic downtown. This week, the eclectic venue welcomed a packed house of locals who came to learn about science.  

91��Ƭ��’s second public Science Café on Sept. 4 proved a success as more than 60 members of the public came to hear two 91��Ƭ�� faculty members discuss the impacts of climate change on Maine’s beaches. 

Will Kochtitzky, Ph.D., and Jennifer Brousseau, Ph.D., assistant professors in the School of Marine and Environmental Programs, shared their research and welcomed questions about their talk, “Storms, Sea Level Rise, and the Future of Maine’s Beaches.”   

The traveling monthly science series that allows 91��Ƭ�� faculty to share the world of science with the University’s home communities is presented by 91��Ƭ��’s Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences (CEN) in partnership with host venues in Biddeford and Portland. All of the evening presentations are free and open to the public. 

Michael Burman, Ph.D., a professor of Psychology and the center’s program director who organized the series, opened things up on Thursday by explaining the center’s mission. 

“Our goal is to get our excellence and awesome science out to the public where you are. And, clearly, you are here. So, thank you for being here,” Burman said as he looked around at the audience, who responded with enthusiastic applause. 

Kochtitzky and Brousseau wasted no time in trying to engage that audience, half of whom were standing in the back of the long coffee-house room. 

They opened with a class assignment, asking guests to fill out sticky notes for poster boards that helped answer three important questions: What do beaches mean to you? What changes have you experienced broadly at beaches? And what are your concerns for the future of Maine beaches? 

The answers that came back were posted on an easel. Audience members said Maine’s beaches symbolize peace, family, and time in nature. Some said the changes they’ve seen included shifts in seaweed, erosion, and coastal storms. The concerns they shared included the fear of shrinking beaches, the loss of coastal homes, and the loss of wildlife habitat. 

Kochtitzky explained that coastlines will change dramatically with increased sea level rise in the next few centuries. He then pivoted to the work he’s doing with drone photography with his students, research that shows the historic winter storms in January 2024 destroyed 28% of the dunes along three southern Maine beaches in Saco, Biddeford, and Kennebunkport.  

Using drone photography, or unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry that produces two-and-three dimensional models, Kochtitzky and his students also found that, at those beaches, work communities did to replace the dunes by scraping and planting dune grass proved successful. The drone footage showed 10 to 50% of the sand that was lost from the dunes came back nine months later as a result of those restoration efforts, Kochtitzky said. 

He noted that the damaging trend of powerful storms will continue — and so will his research. 

“We have just been flying this week to try to understand what happened this summer, as well. And we should know in the next month just how that compares to the beaches pre-storm,” Kochtitzky said. 

Brousseau then took the floor with some humor — and an invitation to join her in her research.  

“I’m a social scientist. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of cool equipment like drones,” Brousseau quipped. “But what I do is try to talk to all of you and learn about your experience living in southern Maine. What changes have you seen in your lifetime here? What have you done to your properties potentially to deal with those changes?” 

Brousseau recently launched a project called the York County Community Voices and Photos Project that will direct 91��Ƭ�� students to go into local communities to talk with those affected by sea level rise along the Maine coast and ask them to share historic photos and videos of the changing coastline. She pointed over her shoulder at a QR code on the screen and invited those present to participate in the new study. 

“The idea behind it was spurred by community members who are here tonight with an interest in trying to really catalog that history within communities in southern Maine and trying to catalog that through historical photos and videos,” Brousseau said.  

The audience then peppered the two scientists with questions and stories of how seawalls have changed and the experience of seeing neighbors come together to plant dune grass. One woman said she worries about being cut off from the mainland if the one road to her home is eventually cut off by a rising ocean. 

“We want to really learn from the past and inform the future and actions that might better enable a more resilient vision,” Brousseau encouraged the crowd. 

The next Science Café will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 5 at Novel in Portland, where Burman will discuss the neurobiology of stress. 

Those interested in future Science Café events can visit the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences website for details on the monthly series and other events.