Robben: Introduction

Introduction

Tom Robben

COA, President, and Research Chair since 2013.

BIRDS NEED THE CHANGING LIS "RESTAURANT" TO SURVIVE!

This conference focuses on the LIS Long Island Sound ecosystem and its food web, and the birds feeding on this changing food web, which is, in effect, the birds' restaurant, with its "menu" changing seasonally.  This entire LIS ecosystem (including its food web) changes in seasonal cycles and in long-term trends.  We look at both kinds of changes.  Birds depend upon this "menu" of food to survive and reproduce.  It is imperative that we understand this menu and how it is changing.  

LIS  Long Island Sound has annual seasonal cycles, driven by these physical cycles:

LIS also has long tern trends, such as these:

Razorbill with three Sandlances: 

Waldman: Overview

Long Island Sound – An Ever-Evolving Ecosystem

John Waldman, Queens College, NY

Long Island Sound is a water body created recently in geological time, the product of glaciers that began their retreat approximately 15,000 years ago. It mixes with fresh waters, principally the Connecticut River, and has salinities that are on the high end for an estuary. Seasonal temperature swings of LIS are pronounced, with summer heat leading to stratification and hypoxia in its western end. Seasonal temperature changes also help drive seasonal changes in its fish community, considered a key component of the Sound’s “Restaurant for Birds.” Fish are most biodiverse and abundant in September and least so in late winter. Temperatures of LIS have been increasing at the fast rate of approximately 0.85F per decade. Changing temperatures have led to long-term changes in its ichthyofauna. Species that are rarely or no longer seen are primarily cold-water forms such as Atlantic tomcod, silver hake, squirrel hake, Atlantic mackerel, and winter flounder. Warm-water fishes that were once rare or absent include bluefish (adults), summer flounder, common searobin, and skittlefish; warm-water species that increased dramatically in abundance include scup (porgy) and black sea bass. A critical nexus exists between fish and seabirds in LIS. This includes predation by raptors such as Bald Eagles and Osprey, gulls and terns of various species, wading birds such as herons and egrets, and Double-crested Cormorants. Cormorant predation may be responsible for the great reduction of slow-swimming cunner in LIS. Menhaden, a herring species is a key species at the base of the Sound’s fish-birds food chain. One proactive measure that can provide more of herring species (alewife and blueback herring) for birds is dam removals on the fish’s spawning rivers. The future of LIS will likely include increased stratification from warming and a loss of salt marshes as a result of sea-level rise. It is also likely that both the restaurant menu (fishes) and the restaurant patrons (birds) will change due to rising temperatures, resulting in novel biotic communities for LIS. 

Note the extreme seasonal water temperature cycles in LIS, from the coldest weeks of early February to the warmest weeks around August 1st. 

These extreme water temperature cycles drive most of the fish diversity, occurrence and abundance in LIS. 

This is a photo of Northern Gannets plunge-diving into the water to catch fish. 

Decker: Environment and Habitats

Mary Beth Decker

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 

Yale University 

Abstract

Title: Long Island Sound’s Coastal Habitats: A Bird’s Eye View

Long Island Sound is a dynamic estuarine system, which encompasses a wide variety of habitats that support birds. These range from nearshore and intertidal habitats, such as salt marshes, beaches, mud flats and rocky outcrops, to the Sound’s open waters. These habitats and the birds that depend on them are threatened directly or indirectly by climate change, sea level rise, severe storms, non-point source pollution and invasive species. Protection of these coastal habitats is key to maintaining bird populations in Long Island Sound.

Outline: Environment & Habitats (in & around Long Island Sound)

Geographical Overview (show maps)

LIS estuary, rivers, the Race, Block Island Sound, Continental Shelf

Physical Oceanography

Freshwater and saltwater sources, temperature/salinity ranges

Tides, wind, circulation

Stratification, hypoxia

Temporal variability (seasonal, inter-annual, inter-decadal)

LIS Habitats and relevance to birds

Intertidal (rocky intertidal, cobble, beaches, mud flats)

Tidal Marshes

Seagrass

Seaweeds

Nearshore open water (inside LIS)

Offshore open water (outside LIS)

Threats to Habitats

Climate change

Sea level rise

Severe storms

Notice the season cycle of river water (fresh water) entering LIS, caused mostly by snow-melt and spring rains.  

LIS Ecosystem and its Food Web

 will be drafted here, as an intro to all the following presentations

This LIS food web diagram is from the Long Island Sound Study. Click on it to enlarge it. Then press Esc key to return. 

https://longislandsoundstudy.net/2010/03/inside-the-long-island-sound-food-web/  

McManus: Plankton

An example post will be drafted here, this week, using PLANKTON  as the example, with a few images from the presentation slide deck.  This post is not done. It is still under construction as of Nov.9, 2022.  

++++++++++++++++++++++

PLANKTON: 

George McManus

Professor of Marine Sciences
Interim Director, Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve
University of Connecticut
1080 Shennecossett Rd.
Groton CT   USA  06340

microzooplankton.uconn.edu

https://microzooplankton.uconn.edu/people/ 

Time on the video recording:  1hr33min -to- 2hr25min

Talk summary/abstract: 

                Long Island Sound plankton has been studied since the 1940s, when Gordon Riley and his group at Yale made some of the first observations of phyto- and zooplankton seasonal cycles and used state-of-the-art mathematical models to describe their interactions and dynamics.  Since then, groups at Stony Brook and UConn have developed a more detailed picture of plankton in the Sound, including participation in a >20 year monitoring program funded through the EPA’s National Estuary Program.  This talk gives an overview of the kinds of plankton in Long Island Sound. It summarizes the seasonal cycles of the important plankton groups, introduces the links in the plankton food web, and where birds directly and indirectly relate to plankton. It discusses possible changes as the regional climate warms.  It discusses changes in plankton, both those occurring now, and potential. 

Wilson's Storm-petrel is a regular summer visitor to LIS, and here are several foraging for plankton: 

Gulls plankton feeding in LIS in March 2019:

++++++++++++++++++++++