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Official Instagram for @uofnh research—high-impact discoveries and real-world innovation from NH's flagship public R1 university. 🌎

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What’s it like to spend three weeks at sea on a scientific cruise? ⛴️

There are birds, mud, and bright things in the ocean. That’s a sample of what researchers aboard the R/V Armstrong witnessed in the Gulf of Maine during a recent mission called Acoustics Shelf to Shore, led by UNH marine acoustician Jennifer Miksis-Olds with scientists from UNH and other institutions. The team conducted zooplankton and fish sampling, recovered data and redeployed four ocean bottom landers, conducted seafloor characterization surveys, acquired sediment cores from the ocean bottom— and even looked for bats.

And they wrote. “We blogged every day to share our progress, victories, challenges, and life aboard the R/V Armstrong,” says Miksis-Olds, who is director of UNH’s Center for Acoustics Research and Education, or CARE.

In the mission’s blog, Tony Lyons, research professor and associate director of CARE, explains why buoys, floats, and moorings are almost always orange or yellow. Spoiler alert: It’s physics. In her down time, oceanography Ph.D. student Daryll Carlson spotted — and photographed — six different species of pelagic seabirds and some pilot whales. And Judith Elliot-Adjoh, a Ph.D. student in ocean engineering, spent her days in a refrigerated lab investigating how fast sound travels through mud and how much of it the mud swallows on the way.

The mission was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and was conducted from the R/V Armstrong of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. See link in bio for more information. by @unhresearch

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Researchers at @uofnh are studying New Hampshire’s 19,000 miles of rivers and streams, from the Connecticut River in the west to the waters flowing to the Atlantic Ocean in the east, which shape the state’s lives, livelihoods, and landscapes.

The research team is taking advantage of three rare opportunities to study rivers and streams before and after significant changes to better understand how New Hampshire’s communities along a river’s path are impacted by changes in water quality.

“It’s unusual to be able to measure streams before and after significant restoration events,” says NHAES scientist Wilfred Wollheim, the Josephine A. Lamprey Professor in Climate and Sustainability and professor in the UNH department of natural resources and the environment at @colsa.unh.

“The data we’re collecting before and after human-made dam removal, beaver dam construction, and our own restoration project will provide insights that are relevant throughout New Hampshire.”

While the expectation is that each change will help improve water quality, alter greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce the amount of nitrogen flowing downstream, the goal of each study is to test that hypothesis and quantify the size of those impacts.

Can the latest research tools and methods help to better understand how natural and planned landscape changes impact New Hampshire’s water quality now and in the future? Wollheim and his lab are working hard to find the answer to that vital question.

Read more at the link in bio!

@unhresearch A river with a small dam and surrounding greenery under a blue sky. The text reads, "UNH researchers investigate the effects of restoration on New England streams." by @unhresearch

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A UNH physicist has scored a highly competitive Department of Energy Genesis Mission grant to explore using artificial intelligence to better understand spin and the fundamental structure of matter, addressing questions at the heart of modern nuclear physics.

Nathaly Santiesteban’s project, which she’ll conduct with UNH physics colleagues Karl Slifer and Elena Long, was one of just 278 selected from over 5,000 proposals to the Genesis Mission, which aims to accelerate breakthroughs and double the nation’s scientific productivity with AI-enabled workflows.

“This research addresses a fundamental question: How does matter acquire the properties we observe? Most visible matter is made of protons and neutrons, yet we still do not fully understand how their internal components produce properties such as spin,” says Santiesteban, assistant professor of physics and astronomy. She will use the polarized-target laboratory at UNH as the project’s primary testing site. by @unhresearch

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New England’s first comprehensive space industry expo is coming to UNH this fall. 🪐

On Oct. 28 and 29, UNH will host the Northeast Space, Technology, Trade, and Research (STTAR) Expo alongside the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs and the NH Aerospace & Defense Consortium. Both days are anchored at the MUB.

Day one of the Expo will be an industry day, with opportunities to hear from keynote speakers, learn at industry-leading exhibits and technology demonstrations, connect with suppliers, manufacturers, and procurement leaders and build partnerships with researchers and academic institutions.

Day two is education and career day, built for students from middle school through graduate programs, with a career fair, educational sessions, and UNH facility tours.

The event is free, but RSVP is required. Learn more and register at the link in bio. taken in University of New Hampshire by @unhresearch

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18 days ago

Spreading the word that UNH works for New Hampshire, one bus at a time.

UNH is active in every single N.H. county, supporting the Granite State’s communities, building tomorrow’s workforce, and driving more than $1.3B in annual economic impact. Read more about how we’re supporting the state at the link in bio! taken in University of New Hampshire by @unhresearch

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19 days ago

Join us as we open the doors to our marine science facilities for a day of exploration. Touch a sea star, learn about ocean floor mapping technology, discover how our researchers monitor water quality in Great Bay, and so much more.

This free, all-ages, family-friendly event is open to the public. See you there!

More details at the link in bio. by @unhresearch

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21 days ago

Warming waters in the Gulf of Maine are affecting the distribution and abundance of fishes. Above the waves, the changes are having impact on seabirds, which depend on certain fish species for food.

In a paper published in Movement Ecology, a research team led by UNH scientists Aliya Caldwell, Elizabeth Craig, and Nathan Furey presents data on tern movement, reproductive productivity, and chick provisioning collected across four breeding seasons. They worked on White and Seavey Islands at the south end of the Isles of Shoals, home to the site of the largest common tern breeding colony in the Gulf of Maine.

Early-season access to prey is essential for egg laying, and common terns rely on energy from real-time food acquisition to produce eggs. The data showed that the years with plentiful nearby forage fish saw more eggs laid and much better chick survival than in the years that adults had to seek fish farther away.

The importance of the research is underscored by current projections that environmental changes will further accelerate shifts in forage fish communities. If the projections are accurate, increased foraging effort during breeding seasons may lead to increased movement effort and decreased reproductive success, threatening seabird populations in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere.

Photo Credit: Timm Briggs

Read more at the link in bio! by @unhresearch

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What if a N.H. farm could raise crops and generate solar power on the same acre?

Meet Ellie Malesiada '27G, a master's student in environmental economics who is trying to figure out whether it makes financial sense for farmers in the Granite State to install solar panels above their crops and animals.

Working with Constantine Spandagos, assistant professor of natural resources, Ellie is building the first financial framework for agrivoltaic adoption in the state.

Her work follows two parallel tracks. She interviews solar developers, town energy and agricultural commission members, and agricultural loan providers across New Hampshire. She also uses a dynamic model to test the financial viability of agrivoltaics under the state’s specific agricultural, policy, and economic conditions.

If the numbers hold up, farmers could see improved income and reduced costs, rural communities could gain better energy access and resilience, and the state could move closer to its clean energy and energy independence goals.

Ellie came to UNH from Athens, Greece, after a fully funded master's position opened a door she had been waiting on for years. From there, her research opened the rest.

"What started as a research project became my social network, my local guide, and my community," Ellie says. "Science, it turns out, is a pretty great way to make a new place feel like home."

Thanks for sharing this work with us, Ellie! We're inspired by your efforts to clear a path for a more sustainable future.

Ellie's research is supported by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. by @unhresearch

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What happens in your brain when a piece of music moves you? 🎻

Meet Alison Henderson '28, a music performance and neuroscience & behavior double major who spent the summer studying how listeners respond to classical music.

Participants come into the lab, listen to a piece, and report the emotions they feel while their pupil size is measured. Alison's role centers on the score itself. She analyzes melody, harmony and structure to predict the moments where a listener's emotions or pupils might change.

Working with faculty mentors David Upham, associate professor of music, and Kate Christison-Lagay, assistant professor of biological sciences, the team is asking whether the structure of a piece lines up with shifts in a listener's emotions, and whether musicians show a stronger connection between pupil dilation and emotional intensity than non-musicians.

Pupil size is a physical signal the body gives off without conscious control, so pairing it with what listeners say they feel offers a way to measure emotional response from two directions at once.

The project started after Alison met Tara Saran '27 and Nicole Di Benedetto '27 in an NSB 501 lab. All three wanted to work on something involving music, so they applied for funding themselves.

"It has been super interesting to work with a team from different disciplines and to see how each of our perspectives shine a different light on our research questions," Alison says.

Best of luck to Alison and the team as the data comes in!

Alison's research is supported by a SURF grant from the @unhhamelcenter for Undergraduate Research. by @unhresearch

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How do you map a coastline that changes with every tide?

Meet Melanie Carolan, a doctoral student in natural resources and earth systems science who studies the New Hampshire and Maine coast from above and below the waterline.

The nearshore waters she studies are among the hardest places to map. Tides shift the shoreline, navigation hazards make boat surveys risky and the habitats themselves are easily disturbed.

Working with Research Associate Professor Jennifer Dijkstra, Melanie is combining several remote sensing systems, including aerial drones that map seaweeds and boating hazards, to fill in that picture. Better nearshore data means better information for coastal navigation, construction and conservation.

She has also used remote underwater video systems to track where fish, crabs and lobsters live and move, addressing gaps in fishery-independent monitoring data as species distributions shift.

"The coolest aspect is that it's a highly visual form of research," Melanie says. "I get to see seals swimming, fish schooling and birds diving while analyzing the footage."

Thanks for sharing your work with us, Melanie. The Seacoast you grew up on is lucky to have you mapping it! 🐚

Melanie's research has been funded by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration award to UNH, with additional support from New Hampshire Sea Grant Development Funds.

📸 credit: Glenna Dyson by @unhresearch

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This is not your average internship. This summer, three UNH students traversed 5,800+ nautical miles in the Atlantic Ocean to test the waters – literally! – of a career in marine science. ⛴️

Orla Fogarty ’29, Grace Bemis ’26, and grad student Amelea Hauer joined NOAA's East Coast Ocean Acidification Cruise aboard the R/V Henry Bigelow this summer, helping collect critical ocean acidification data from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada down to Miami. The experience offered a front-row seat to scientific discovery and future jobs in marine science.

Fogarty says, “As a first internship, this was an amazing opportunity and showed me what a cruise job looks like for a scientist. I learned how to constructively work and collaborate on a vessel with multiple scientists from several different universities and backgrounds, and I learned how the scientific processes adjust to a moving ship environment.”

And she didn’t even get seasick.

Read more about their journey and the research helping to track chemical changes in our ocean at the link in bio. 🔬⚓ taken in University of New Hampshire by @unhresearch

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What can we learn from the ocean? Lots, if we listen.

This summer, UNH and partners deployed a cabled ocean observing system near the Isles of Shoals a powerful new tool that will measure the coastal Gulf of Maine environment. The platform of sophisticated acoustic and oceanographic sensors will transmit data in real time for the first time in this region.

Located 10 miles offshore and three miles east of Appledore Island, the system’s sensors will detect human and marine mammal activity, wind and precipitation, sea ice dynamics, and oceanographic features, with implications for national security, energy development, and commercial fisheries.

Funded with a $6.2 million grant from the Office of Naval Research, the solar-powered system comprises three elements: an underwater platform that hosts ten sensors, solar panel and data acquisition systems on Appledore Island, and a subsea cable that connects the two.

“Measurements made with this valuable ocean asset will serve as a baseline for analyses of environmental conditions in this busy, productive area of the Gulf of Maine,” says project lead Jennifer Miksis-Olds, director of UNH’s Center for Acoustics Research and Education. “As the first of its kind on the East Coast, this will expand our understanding of the ocean in real time.”

The cabled ocean observing system represents powerful partnerships between many local and national collaborators, including New Hampshire-based SubCom, JASCO Applied Sciences, and Shoals Marine Lab, a field station and undergraduate marine science facility jointly operated by UNH and Cornell University. by @unhresearch

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