Data Management Plan

This feature class resides within the BIOLOGY Feature Data Set of the Long Island Sound - 2016 ESI Geodatabase. It contains vector polygons representing sensitive biological resource data for invertebrates in Long Island Sound. The study area includes Long Island Sound, tidal tributaries and bays, freshwater streams, lakes, and land areas in New York and Connecticut. The 33 total invertebrate species include mollusks, crustaceans, and insects. Vector polygons in this data set represent invertebrate distributions, spawning and nursery areas, concentration areas, migration areas, harvest areas, and areas of vulnerable occurrence.

Species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, life history, and source information are stored in associated data tables (described in Entity Attribute Overview below) designed to be used in conjunction with this spatial data layer. This data set is a portion of the ESI data for Long Island Sound.

As a whole, the ESI data characterize the marine and coastal environments and wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil, and include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources.

This reflects the extent of all land and water features included in the overall Long Island Sound ESI study region. The bounding box for this particular feature class may vary depending on occurrences identified and mapped.

Process Steps:

• 2016-06-01 00:00:00 - Selection of Species: Thirty-three species of invertebrates are represented in this atlas, and this is not intended to include all species present within the study area. Species were selected based on conservation interest (i.e. endangered, threatened, or special concern), ecological importance, or commercial or recreational importance. Mollusk species include nine bivalves, one cephalopod (longfin squid), and one gastropod (channeled whelk). Ten insect species are included, most of which are considered rare, threatened, or endangered. Other arthropod species include seven decapod crabs, three shrimps, horseshoe crab, and American lobster. In all, a total of 698 polygons are used to represent the distributions of the 33 selected invertebrate species. A total of 29 sources were cited to develop the invertebrate data set.
• 2016-06-01 00:00:00 - Developing information for species of concern: Distributions of rare, endangered, or threatened invertebrate species (e.g., coastal barrens buckmoth, scarlet bluet) were represented by developing polygons based on information provided state Natural Heritage Programs in both Connecticut and New York (CT DEEP 2015, NYS NHP 2015). Locations of horseshoe crab spawning areas were identified from published reports and digital GIS data provided by regional experts (Cornell Univ. 2016, Molloy Coll. 2015, Sacred Heart Univ. 2016).
• 2016-06-01 00:00:00 - Developing information for bivalve mollusks: Bivalve shellfish species in inshore waters include blue and ribbed mussels, bay scallop, eastern oysters, quahog (hard clam), softshell clam, and Atlantic surf clam. In New York portions of Long Island Sound and embayments, these species were largely mapped based on landings data and harvest zone polygons provided by NYS Department of Conservation (NYS DEC 2013). Bivalve shellfish in areas along the Connecticut shore were largely mapped using polygon representations of shellfish beds provided by CT Department of Agriculture \x96 Bureau of Aquaculture (CT Dept. Ag. 2016).
• 2016-06-01 00:00:00 - Developing information for mainstem Long Island Sound: In mainstem areas of Long Island Sound, information on invertebrate species was provided by published reports from the Long Island Sound Trawl Survey, conducted by Connecticut\x92s Marine Fisheries Division in Old Lyme, CT (Gotschall and Pacileo 2015). A study recently published by The Nature Conservancy is based on these trawl survey data, and presents results on a per-species basis (Anderson et al. 2015). Invertebrate species featured in these sources include American lobster, longfin squid, horseshoe crab, and others.
• 2016-06-01 00:00:00 - Developing information for coastal embayments: In coastal embayments of the New York shore, Western Long Island (WLI) beach seine survey data (provided by NYSDEC staff) reported catch of invertebrate species as well as fishes (NYS DEC 2014b). Areas surveyed include Little Neck Bay, Manhassett Bay, Hempstead Harbor, Oyster Bay, Stony Brook Harbor, Port Jefferson Harbor, and Peconic Bay. Beach seine methods are especially effective for inshore species including blue crab, green crab, horseshoe crab, and spider crabs. Trawl survey data were also provided for Peconic Bay, with lady crab, spider crabs, blue crab, mantis shrimp, horseshoe crab, and longfin squid prominent in the catch (NYS DEC 2014a). New York Department of State\x92s assessments of \x93Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat\x94 provided additional information on invertebrate species present in specific areas (NYDS 2015). For the coastal embayments and tidal tributaries on the Connecticut shore, results of the Connecticut Beach Seine Surveys, Inshore Surveys, and other site-specific surveys were applied (Howell 2015, Molnar and Howell 2015, Fell et al. 2003).