We change with them

Booher, Jennifer

From the abstract: ""We Change With Them," a six-image series by Jennifer Steen Booher, explores shifting ecosystem dynamics resulting from climate change in the Gulf of Maine. It is part of the Landscape of Change project, our joint initiative with Acadia National Park, Schoodic Institute, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, College of the Atlantic, and A Climate to Thrive, and was published in Chebacco XXIII: Imagining What If… in spring 2022. The images layer cyanotype, drawings, and data to tell the story of climate-related phenomena on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The project title refers to a sixteenth-century English proverb, “Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis” (All things change and we change with them). Booher identified six changes she observed taking place around her: the collapse of shrimp populations and the influx of squid due to warming seas; colonization of oysters into island bays and harbors; invasive species that cause public health issues like brown tailed moth caterpillars and ticks; invasive species that impact traditional Maine fisheries like green crabs on clams; and threats to anadromous fish due to extreme weather events. Booher was shocked by the immediacy of the changes she observed, ”I thought I understood climate change, but the complexity I found during this project was humbling. Each of the images began with observation of a climate-related phenomenon, followed by intensive research into its causes.”"