This study aids in developing a synergistic ecological-coastal resiliency framework for a significant portion of the coastal habitat on Fire Island. It is envisioned that the study will provide key information on beach restoration, management and conservation actions for other beach dependent species, in addition to the federally-listed piping plover, along the entire south shore barrier island system chain.
The three major goals of this project are:
(1) Intensive field work monitoring the piping plover population west of the new inlet in the Federal Wilderness Area, thereby greatly increasing the range of habitat conditions that can be assessed for resiliency under both natural processes and coastal stabilization.
(2) Fine and coarse scaled collection of habitat data for expansion and scaling of the SLR modeling to Long Island; and
(3) Data on migratory shorebird habitat use concurrent with the early part of the hurricane season (1 June-15 August 2014) and piping plover breeding season on Long Island, including analysis of an assessment of the use of piping plovers as a surrogate species for beach habitat conservation.
