NOTE: COA Science Conferences will resume in 2024, in early November 2024. There will be no COA Science Conference in 2023.
The 6-hour video recording of this 2022 conference can be viewed by clicking on this link:
The numbers in the right-most column in the table below are an index to this long recording.
Remember that this conference is in conjunction with our Bird Restaurant Photos project, which is beginning at this draft collection of photos, of birds eating things in and near LIS (see the example photo below, thanks to Chris Wood):
This "Bird Restaurant Photos" project will continue through the winter, and be reevaluated in the Spring, aiming to possibly continue it through the heat of the summer. We are soliciting winter photographs from now until March 31, and especially during the coldest months of January and February. This project is another opportunity for Bird Photographers to make a unique contribution to our bird knowledge in and around LIS, Long Island Sound. Thank you Bird Photographers!
The panoramic photo at the top of this site was taken by Chris Wood during our COA/HAS March 9, 2019 "mini-pelagic" cruise in Long Island Sound. It shows some of the 3,000 gulls surface-feeding on the LIS foodweb that day, 1.5 miles off Long Beach, Stratford, CT. You can see details of that 2019 trip here:
The table below shows the agenda for our Nov.5, 2022 Science Conference. The right-most column shows the time on the video recording at which that section begins, e.g., the food web talks began at 1hour 33minutes into the recorded video.
Our next conference is planned for half a day on Nov.4, 2023. Between now and then we will agree on a short LIS "watchlist" of food web "indicator species" in each category of life forms, which we want to track (birds such as Roseate Tern, and other LIS life forms), and give an update on their status and any changes at next year's conference. We may be able to use iNaturalist.org to assist us with this effort.
For questions, suggestions and contributing photos or other materials, please contact
Tom Robben
robben99@gmail.com
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QUESTIONS:
The main questions for this conference include:
- How is the LIS Long Island Sound ecosystem and its food web changing?
- How are birds responding to those changes, both seasonal cycles and long-term trends? What are they eating, and how is that changing?
- How are birds handling the extremes of the LIS seasonal cycles, e.g., the cold of mid-winter and the heat of mid-summer? Do the stresses of these seasonal extremes help us learn anything?
- Might the bird and food web responses to seasonal extremes tell us how they might respond to extreme longer term trends, such as climate changes?
- Can photographs showing what birds eat in LIS help us with any of these questions? We have a parallel "Bird Restaurant Photos" project to do this, starting with an initial focus on the coldest winter months: **LIS "Bird Restaurant" photos - Google Slides
- Can we draft a watchlist of a few indicator species in LIS, and watch how they change? How?
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WATCHLIST OF LIS INDICATOR SPECIES:
This Watchlist for LIS will be constructed here, starting from these few species. How can we monitor their presence and abundance? Their LIS seasonal status indicators are: PR=Permanent Resident, PRNB=Permanent Resident NonBreeding, SB=Summer Breeder, SV=Summer Visitor, M=Migrant, WV=Winter Visitor.
BIRDS: What do each of these eat?
--- Roseate Tern, Common Tern, Least Tern. SB.
--- Northern Gannet. M. Rare in winter.
--- Razorbill. WV.
--- marsh sparrows. SB.
--- Osprey. SB.
--- Double-crested Cormorant. SB. Winters in LIS locally in small numbers.
--- Bonaparte's Gull. M and WV.
--- Ring-billed Gull. PRNB.
--- Red-breasted Merganser. WV. A few summer along the coast.
--- Purple Sandpiper. WV.
--- Red Knot. M. Rare in winter.
--- Willet. SB.
--- Brant. M and WV.
--- Wilson's Storm-petrel. SV.
---
FISH:
--- Menhaden. M.
--- Sand Lance (several species). PR.
---
INVERTEBRATES: all PR?
--- Horseshoe crab
--- several crab species?
--- Slippershell snail.
--- some marine worms?
---
PLANKTON: all PR?
--- Acartia tonsa (warm-season dominant)
--- Acartia hudsonica
--- Alexandrium spp (toxin-producing dinoflagellates, a phytoplankton)
--- Barnacle cyprid
---
MARINE MAMMALS:
--- ice seals: Harp Seal, Hooded Seal. WV.
--- any Cetaceans in LIS: whales, dolphins, porpoises. M.
MARINE REPTILES:
--- any sea turtles: Leatherback, Loggerhead, Atlantic Green, Kemp's Ridley. SV.
VEGETATION:
--- sea grasses. PR.
OTHERS?
WATER CHEMISTRY?
--- dissolved oxygen
--- nitrates
--- phosphates
--- pH
--- salinity
--- temperature
---
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PROFILES:
Portrait of a bird's typical food chain, e.g., Osprey<--Menhaden<--zooplankton<--phytoplankton<--nitrogen&phosphates<--decomposer bacteria<--Osprey! This is a partial/conceptual carbon/nitrogen cycle food chain.
Several such typical food chains will be suggested, and we will ask if there are ways they can be monitored throughout the year.
LIFE CYCLES of selected prey species, especially Menhaden, the finfish species which so many bird's lives depend upon: Menhaden and Atlantic menhaden - Wikipedia . Also read "The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden",
Their life cycle will be related to their bird predators...
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REFERENCES: draft list starting here:
Wahle, Lisa. - Plants and Animals of Long Island Sound.
Good basic info on LIS wildlife in a short 40-page booklet.
Lynch, Patrick. A Field Guide to Long Island Sound. 2017. Yale.
Long Island Sound: Prospects for the Urban Sea (Springer Series on Environmental Management)
by James S. Latimer, Mark A. Tedesco (Editor), R. Lawrence Swanson (Editor), Charles Yarish (Editor), Paul E. Stacey (Editor), Corey Garza (Editor)... 2012. There is a $24 Kindle edition for computer viewing.
LIS Blue Plan…
Long Island Sound Blue Plan – Resource and Use Inventory…
Long Island Sound Resource and Use Inventory… 2019… Chapters 5-7 very useful…
Hammerson, Geoffrey. Connecticut Wildlife: Biodiversity, Natural History, and Conservation. 2004.
Waldman, John. Our lead-off presenter on Nov.5,2022 wrote these 2 very interesting books:
MANY MORE REFERENCES WILL BE ADDED HERE.
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DATA SETS:
we will build up a list of them here... such as this one:
LISTS Long Island Sound Trawl Survey.
“ To date, the Trawl Survey has documented 99 finfish species and more than 60 invertebrate taxa. Each spring (April, May, June) and fall (September, October) the 50-foot R/V John Dempsey carries its crew of 4-6 scientists and vessel staff on the monthly cruises, sampling 40 stations “
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