SCIENCE SYNTHESIS PAPERS
FOR
FIRE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE

Vector-borne Diseases on Fire Island, New York
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR--2005/018
Howard S. Ginsberg
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Coastal Field Station, Woodward Hall-PLS
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881

Water Quality and Ecology of Great South Bay
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2005/019
Kenneth R. Hinga
Graduate School of Oceanography
University of Rhode Island
Narragansett, RI 02882

Bay Shoreline Physical Processes
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2005/020
Karl F. Nordstrom and Nancy L. Jackson
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
and
Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Newark, NJ 07102

The Coastal Geomorphology of Fire Island: A Portrait of
Continuity and Change
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2005/021
Norbert P. Psuty, Michele Grace and Jeffrey P. Pace
Sandy Hook Cooperative Programs
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
74 Magruder Road
Sandy Hook, NJ 07732

White-tailed Deer Ecology and Management on
Fire Island National Seashore
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2005/022
H. Brian Underwood
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
State University of New York
College of Environmental Science & Forestry
426 Illick Hall
Syracuse, NY 132

Conservation and Management
of the Living Marine Resources of
Fire Island National Seashore
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR – 2005/023
David O. Conover, Robert Cerrato, and William Wise
Marine Sciences Research Center
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York 11794-5000

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Background and Purpose

Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS) is scheduled to begin preparation of a new General Management Plan (GMP) in the near future. A GMP outlines how natural and cultural resources, public uses, and park operations should be managed over the next several decades. The GMP addresses significant issues or challenges that are facing the park, proposes management solutions, and establishes management priorities. The Fire Island GMP will be prepared by a team of planners, with input from the park, technical subject matter experts, and with substantial public involvement.

To insure that the GMP team has all relevant natural resource information available to them, a series of scientific synthesis papers has been prepared for a variety of natural resource topics that will be of special relevance to the Fire Island GMP. Based on a 2-day meeting with the FIIS Superintendent, FIIS Chief of Natural Resource Management, Northeast Region planners, and Northeast Region science staff, the following natural resource topic areas were identified:
· Geomorphology of beaches and dunes
· Physical processes of the bay shoreline
· Habitat ecology and water quality of Great South Bay
· Conservation of Living Marine Resources (habitats, finfish and shellfish)
· Vector-borne diseases
· White-tailed Deer ecology and management

For each of these topics, leading scientific experts were invited to prepare papers that synthesize our current state-of-knowledge. There is a wealth of published technical information on these topics. The purpose of these papers was to provide a scientifically credible summary of the available and relevant information and present this information in a succinct manner. The GMP team will receive papers that provide an objective, independent and expert synthesis of an extensive and often complex technical literature. Each paper was subject to the scientific peer review process.

Each synthesis paper is expected to accomplish the following:
· Synthesize and interpret the relevant literature and monitoring data to describe the fundamental processes controlling the natural resource, and describe historic and recent trends or rates of change for relevant processes, habitats, or species.
· Describe current and historic management, regulatory, and other activities that have been relevant to the particular natural resource.
· Identify gaps in our current understanding of the natural resource.

Because the synthesis papers are prepared prior to initiation of the GMP process, if information gaps are considered critical to decision-making for the GMP there may be adequate time to conduct the appropriate required studies or data analysis tasks. Moreover, the papers will serve to identify topics or issues that should be the focus of additional synthesis or review papers in support of the GMP information gathering and synthesis phase.

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