Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, North Atlantic Coast CESU

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The USGS Coastal Groundwater Systems Project is a multi-year effort that includes components focused on quantifying nutrient delivery to western Long Island Sound and to Great South Bay (Long Island) via submarine groundwater discharge. By improving our understanding of nutrient delivery to coastal waters, this project will help to manage estuarine eutrophication in both Long Island Sound and at Fire Island National Seashore, New York. Assistance is sought to quantify discharge in three Long Island locations (Northport Harbor, Manhasset Bay and Great South Bay) from direct observations using seepage meter and piezometer measurements and to compare such observations to available discharge estimates made using radiochemical approaches. For northern Long Island, assistance is also sought to extrapolate the results of these site specific studies to the region. This will be done by developing a typology for the shoreline according to its potential for ground-water seepage. Coastal typologies, in general, attempt to classify environments into groups based on physical, structural and functional similarities in order to assess behavior in the coastal zone where direct observations are lacking (LOICZ 1997). By systematic categorization of the coastal zone, a typology will provide a framework for scaling local investigations to a regional scale (Bokuniewicz, 2001). The typology would be based on available data such as land use, climatic parameters and state variables, like the hydraulic conductivity and coastal hydraulic head. A suitable typology will be developed to relate the proposed study areas to the regional coastline.

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