EAST BOOTHBAY, Maine (AP) A Maine marine science lab is set to receive about $2 million to study the resiliency of deep sea ecosystems in the era of climate change.

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree said the National Science Foundation is giving the grant to Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay. Pingree said the work is especially important in the era of human-created environmental challenges for ocean ecosystems.

Pingree said carbon sequestration, in particular, is a threat to the ocean seafloor, and that could worsen the worldwide impacts of climate change. She said Bigelow Labs “is doing key work to better understand what’s going on in our oceans, and this significant investment will help them research the deep waters of the Gulf of Maine.”