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SoMAS Lecture: “Great South Bay History” at Stony Brook Southampton
March 2, 2018 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Free
On Friday, March 2nd at 7:30pm, Dr. Robert Cerrato
from The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
at Stony Brook University will present a lecture titled:
“Great South Bay History: Barrier Islands,
Breaches, and Ecosystem Change after Sandy”
in the Duke Lecture Hall of Chancellor’s Hall on the Stony Brook Southampton Campus.
Seminar: 7:30 – 8:30pm
The abstract of the talk appears below. We hope to see you there!
Barrier islands and back barrier environment have existed for at least nine thousand years in the Great South Bay region. During most of that time, there is evidence that the bay was very open to exchange with the ocean. Starting at the beginning of the Little Ice Age (~1350 CE), the bay became more enclosed and more influenced by landward events, especially after European colonization. Between the 1880s and 2000s, the maturity of the Great South Bay ecosystem declined as suggested by decreasing ecosystem complexity, stability, and resilience. This included a steady decline in filter feeders, upper trophic level predators, and biomass of migratory species. The 2012 breach resulting
from Superstorm Sandy increased exchange between the bay and the ocean. Did that event increase system maturity? Please come to the lecture to find out.