{"id":144267,"date":"2022-02-10T10:08:11","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T15:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=144267"},"modified":"2022-08-26T15:13:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T19:13:50","slug":"video-essie-martin-22-fighting-climate-change-one-kelp-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/02\/10\/video-essie-martin-22-fighting-climate-change-one-kelp-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Essie Martin ’22, a budding scientist-activist fighting climate change, one kelp at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One day, the little girl announced to her kindergarten teacher, \u201cI want to be an entomologist!\u201d While her classmates dreamed of becoming princesses, dragons, and firefighters, Essie Martin \u201922 already knew what she wanted to do: study the natural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin was raised in the coastal Maine town of Damariscotta. As she grew up, so grew her love of the ocean and her community, as well as her understanding of how coastal communities depend on the marine economy. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/lite-youtube>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
Video by Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cSince a young age, I’ve always wanted to sort of work with oceans and help oceans,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at the same time, she\u2019s also had a front-row seat to the effects of climate change. \u201cI’ve seen climate change in action in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise if I had grown up somewhere else,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s the side of me that really hopes that kelp is contributing to climate mitigation and the oceans can be a solution to all this, and then there’s the science hat that I put on in the lab.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At Bates, Martin is putting her advocacy into informed action. She\u2019s majoring in geology and minoring in chemistry, and her senior honors thesis is studying the ability of kelp to sequester carbon, a popular rallying point of climate activists encouraging investment in ocean health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelp absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and then sinks to the ocean floor like leaves in a forest, eventually becoming part of the ocean floor, holding onto the captured carbon for \u2014 hopefully \u2014 millions of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of media hype about kelp and its ability to sequester carbon, but actually there’s very little scientific evidence to back that up,\u201d says Martin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By collecting sediment samples from the sediment below seaweed farms located on the coastal Damariscotta River and studying them in the lab, Martin can see if there\u2019s any presence of environmental DNA<\/a> or carbon isotopes in the sediment, which could indicate carbon sequestration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Essie
In Carnegie Science Hall, Essie Martin ’22 prepares samples of dried kelp. They’ll be ground to a fine dust before being weighed and then analyzed in the stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer in the college’s Environmental Geochemistry Laboratory. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To identify carbon and nitrogen isotopes, Martin uses a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer in the Environmental Geochemistry Laboratory at Bates. For the eDNA analysis, she was able to access new and important eDNA technology being developed at Maine’s internationally known Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences by senior research scientist Nichole Price<\/a>. In the Price lab, doctoral student Sam Tan is helping to analyze Martin’s samples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin explains that her honors thesis is part of a \u201cpreliminary study to just see if there’s kelp in the sediment at all. After that, there’s going to be a lot more work that needs to be done. And that could be a future project for me in grad school or beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of media hype about kelp and its ability to sequester carbon, but actually there’s very little scientific evidence to back that up.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For Martin, \u201cgrad school or beyond\u201d will receive funding from a highly competitive Harry S. Truman Scholarship<\/a>, which will help her pursue a master\u2019s degree in aquaculture and policy. Martin hopes to follow that with a doctorate in geochemical oceanography. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Essie Martin ’22 pilots a motorboat in Bremen, Maine, during her summer 2019 research internship with the University of Maine. (Jess Stumper\/University of Maine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Truman Scholarship recognizes individuals who show leadership potential and are committed to public service, traditionally defined by land-locked efforts around social justice. With climate change knocking on earth\u2019s door, Martin appreciates that \u201can important element of public service now is our oceans and our fisheries and aquaculture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin\u2019s fieldwork has been through internships with the University of Maine\u2019s Darling Marine Center, in Walpole, Maine, where she\u2019s studied kelp and oyster farms<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found that my favorite part of the job were days when I got to go out on the farm and either helped do some of the work or drive the boats around. I just love getting my hands dirty with it,\u201d says Martin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have always been the muddiest kid on the playground and my mom used to get really upset at me for it. My coworkers still make fun of me today. I’ll come back to the lab and I’ll just be drenched in mud head to toe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But getting her hands deep in mud and seaweed is one of the things that makes her the happiest, even if it\u2019s cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ll come back to the lab and I’ll just be drenched in mud head to toe.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

During her time at Bates, Martin\u2019s approach to environmental advocacy has matured. From simple ideas like pulling plastics from the ocean to finding long-term sustainable ways to utilize existing aquaculture resources, she\u2019s figuring out how to be a scientist-activist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like I’ve had to create two hats for myself,\u201d says Martin. \u201cThere’s the side of me that really hopes that kelp is contributing to climate mitigation and the oceans can be a solution and all this, and then there’s the science hat that I put on in the lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Geology
Essie Martin ’22 holds a sign at a student-mobilized Global Climate Strike at the Portland City Hall in 2019. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When she\u2019s in the lab, Martin puts the science hat on. \u201cI just plug my music in and I do the lab work. I don’t really think about the intention when I’m in the lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy, she says. \u201cI know that this is something that a lot of scientists go through learning, and I’m still very much in that process. Working through those emotions is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help and guidance comes from mentors like Martin\u2019s thesis advisor, Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences Bev Johnson, and the Darling Marine Center\u2019s Damien Brady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternating between the lab and the field showed Martin the push-and-pull of aquaculture academics and industry, and she wants to foster that partnership, especially since a large part of the economic life of the Maine coast is drawn from the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
In July 2017, Essie Martin ’22 brandishes a leaf of kelp while working at Maine Sea Farm, which grows kelp for harvest in Walpole, Maine. (Photograph courtesy of Lincoln Academy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Maine, there’s traditionally been sort of some bad blood between industry \u2014 particularly the lobstering industry and scientists \u2014 because there’s this idea that science is always regulating the lobster industry, which is true,\u201d she says. \u201cI would like to be a scientist who is informing that policy and looking at how to \u2014 particularly with aquaculture, because it’s such a new industry \u2014 keep it green, and keep it sustainable as a long-term industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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