Plum Island Biodiversity Inventory
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Plum Island Biodiversity Inventory New York Natural Heritage Program Plum Island Biodiversity Inventory Established in 1985, the New York Natural Heritage NY Natural Heritage also houses iMapInvasives, an Program (NYNHP) is a program of the State University of online tool for invasive species reporting and data New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry management. (SUNY ESF). Our mission is to facilitate conservation of NY Natural Heritage has developed two notable rare animals, rare plants, and significant ecosystems. We online resources: Conservation Guides include the accomplish this mission by combining thorough field biology, identification, habitat, and management of many inventories, scientific analyses, expert interpretation, and the of New York’s rare species and natural community most comprehensive database on New York's distinctive types; and NY Nature Explorer lists species and biodiversity to deliver the highest quality information for communities in a specified area of interest. natural resource planning, protection, and management. The program is an active participant in the The Program is funded by grants and contracts from NatureServe Network – an international network of government agencies whose missions involve natural biodiversity data centers overseen by a Washington D.C. resource management, private organizations involved in based non-profit organization. There are currently land protection and stewardship, and both government and Natural Heritage Programs or Conservation Data private organizations interested in advancing the Centers in all 50 states and several interstate regions. conservation of biodiversity. There are also 10 programs in Canada, and many NY Natural Heritage is housed within NYS DEC’s participating organizations across 12 Latin and South Division of Fish, Wildlife & Marine Resources. The American Countries. Our collaboration with program is staffed by more than 25 scientists and NatureServe and other states helps us put our specialists with expertise in ecology, zoology, botany, information into a broader context. With NatureServe, information management, and geographic information we track the rarity of species and natural communities at systems. global and state scales, allowing us to distinguish NY Natural Heritage maintains New York’s most conservation priorities for species with just a few comprehensive database on the status and location of populations in the world to other species with a few rare species and natural communities. We presently populations in New York but many populations monitor 181 natural community types, 803 rare plant elsewhere. We can also pool our data to look across state species, and 474 rare animal species across New York, and international lines. For example, New York data on keeping track of more than 13,500 locations where these rare species and natural communities along Lake species and communities have been recorded. The Ontario have been combined with similar data from database also includes detailed information on the Canada to facilitate analyses of potential consequences relative rareness of each species and community, the of lake-level changes. New York information has also quality of their occurrences, and descriptions of sites. been combined with data from neighboring states to The information is used by public agencies, the help us understand the significance of our best environmental conservation community, developers, and biodiversity sites relative to similar systems in others to aid in land-use decisions. Our data are essential southeastern Canada, New England, the Mid-Atlantic for prioritizing those species and communities in need states, and other Great Lakes states. of protection and for guiding land-use and land- management decisions where these species and Learn more at www.nynhp.org. communities exist. In addition to tracking recorded locations, NY Natural Heritage has developed models of the areas around these locations important for conserving biodiversity, and models of the distribution of suitable habitat for rare species across New York State. June 2016 ii New York Natural Heritage Program Plum Island Biodiversity Inventory Plum Island Biodiversity Inventory Matthew D. Schlesinger Erin L. White Stephen M. Young Gregory J. Edinger Kelly A. Perkins New York Natural Heritage Program 625 Broadway, 5th Floor Albany, New York 12233-4757 www.nynhp.org Neil Schoppmann Dylan Parry State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, New York June 2016 Please cite this report as follows: Schlesinger, M.D., E.L. White, S.M. Young, G.J. Edinger, K.A. Perkins, N. Schoppmann, and D. Parry. 2016. Biodiversity Inventory of Plum Island, New York. New York Natural Heritage Program, Albany, New York, and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY. Cover photographs (from left to right): Top: Little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), maritime bluff, spring ladies-tresses (Spiranthes vernalis). Middle: snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), late purple aster (Symphyotrichum patens), white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). Bottom: Marine rocky intertidal, black-waved flannel moth (Lagoa crispata), bronzed and hairy-necked tiger beetles (Cicindela repanda and C. hirticollis). June 2016 iii New York Natural Heritage Program Plum Island Biodiversity Inventory Table of contents Table of figures..................................................................................................................................................... v Table of tables ..................................................................................................................................................... vi Executive summary ........................................................................................................................................... vii Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Geography and geology ................................................................................................................................. 1 Climate .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 History of human use ..................................................................................................................................... 4 General methodology .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Natural communities ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Shoreline communities ................................................................................................................................... 7 Maritime beach ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Maritime dunes ......................................................................................................................................... 11 Maritime bluff ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Marine rocky intertidal ............................................................................................................................ 15 Marine eelgrass meadows ............................................................................................................................ 18 Animals ................................................................................................................................................................ 21 Mammals ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 New England cottontail .......................................................................................................................... 21 Bats ............................................................................................................................................................. 21 Other small mammals ............................................................................................................................. 25 Seals ............................................................................................................................................................ 27 Birds ................................................................................................................................................................ 28 At-risk species ........................................................................................................................................... 29 Reptiles and amphibians .............................................................................................................................. 30 Fish .................................................................................................................................................................. 33 Invertebrates .................................................................................................................................................