Name: Plum Island Ecosystem LTER

Location: Massachusetts, USA

Description: The Plum Island Ecosystems LTER (PIE LTER), located in northeastern Massachusetts, is an integrated research, education and outreach program. Its goal is to develop a predictive understanding of the long-term response of coupled land-marsh-estuary-ocean ecosystems to changes in three key drivers: climate, sea level, and human activities. As rates of change in these drivers have accelerated in the PIE region, there is critical need to understand the mechanisms that underlie these responses, and to provide information necessary for effective and timely management. The PIE LTER research site includes the estuaries and marshes of Plum Island Sound and the watersheds of three rivers, the Ipswich, Rowley, and Parker, that combine to form a drainage basin of 609 km2. The Plum Island Sound estuary is a coastal plain, bar-built estuary whose extensive areas of productive marshes are part of the largest expanse of intertidal marsh in the Northeast. Exchange with the coastal ocean is via the Gulf of Maine, an area of the world ocean that is experiencing rapid rise in water temperatures. More information is available at https://lternet.edu/site/plum-island-ecosystems-lter/.

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Rectangular Bounding Box Coordinates:

Polygon Area:  64326 hectares

Polygon Center:  42.657093, -70.970856

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