| | Long Island Sound Study Research Program
Project Descriptions l Research Links l 2008 Needs Assessment l 2005 RFP
Scientific research provides a key to better understanding and more effectively managing Long Island Sound. Recognizing the important role that research plays in decision-making, the US Environmental Protection Agency - Long Island Sound Office (EPA-LISO), Connecticut Sea Grant (CTSG), and New York Sea Grant (NYSG) developed a cooperative program to fund research in support of the Long Island Sound Study. Initiated in 1999, the Long Island Sound Research Grant Program awards funds to researchers whose work helps meet the needs of decision-makers to improve the management of Long Island Sound.
| Wesleyan University graduate students using a modified ‘Van Veen grab sampler’ to collect samples from the sediment surface, as well as to videotape and take still photographs of the sea floor. Using sediment cores, Wesleyan University scientists Johan Varekamp, Ellen Thomas, and Kristina Beuning have documented the environmental transition in Long Island Sound from pre-colonial times to the present. See Environmental Change in Long Island Sound in Project Summaries - 2000. | |  |
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Projects funded by the Long Island Sound Research Grant Program in the past have included research focused on living marine and marine-dependent resources. For example, Richard French examined the health of lobsters in Long Island Sound and the impacts that disease pathogens, environmental stressors, and contaminants have on this economically-important species. The goal of that study was to help identify causes of Long Island Sound's lobster population declines and provide insight for management and recovery efforts. Another project that received support from the Long Island Sound Research Grant Program is on-going research, by Chris Elphick, focused on the population dynamics of saltmarsh breeding sparrows. This project will increase the understanding of the ecology of these specialized marsh birds and provide a model by which alternative management scenarios can be compared. | Chris Elphick, a University of Connecticut biologist, is conducting research to develop a method to estimate the numbers of saltmarsh sharptailed sparrows (above) and seaside sparrows living in Long Island Sound salt marshes. By studying their population and favorite habitats, researchers can get a good indication which salt marshes on Long Island Sound are healthy enough to sustain wildlife, and which sites need to be restored and protected. See Saltmarsh-breeding Sparrows in Long Island Sound in Project Summaries - 2002. | |  |
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The third funding cycle for the grant program was launched in August 2003. Priority research topics, identified with the help of the Long Island Sound Study Science & Technical Advisory Committee, include eutrophication, submerged aquatic vegetation, food web dynamics, and tidal wetland loss. The Research Grant Program is highly competitive - in response to this year's announcement, forty preliminary proposals were submitted for review with close to $5 million in funds requested. Nineteen full proposals were solicited for further consideration. From these full proposals, EPA-LISO, CTSG, and NYSG selected seven projects (See 2004 projects summaries). | | |
Long Island Sound Study
EPA Long Island Sound Office
888 Washington Boulevard
Stamford, CT 06904-2152
Phone: (203) 977-1541 Fax: (203) 977-1546
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