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Written by Emily C. Dooley for Newsday

Researchers and scientists with institutions fromÌý,ÌýÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýÌýare rushing to study the storm’s impact on barrier islands, tides, beaches, water quality, marshes and more.

°ä´Ç²Ô²õ¾±»å±ð°ùÌýÌýa petri dish of superstorm Sandy’s power.

“We’re in a moment in time when there is an opportunity to do something really big and meaningful,” said Nate Woiwode, a policy adviser atÌýÌý´Ç´ÚÌý.

The studies have been undertaken with a sense of urgency to learn as much as possible about Sandy’s impact before evidence is lost to time and tides. That immediacy has pushed dozens of researchers to launch studies on water, on shore and in labs — with or without guaranteed funding. Much of it is science by credit card while they await funding, researchers said.

What they learn isn’t just academic. The findings can help political leaders set the future of Long Island by determining how and where to rebuild and manage resources, researchers said.

“If these things [storms] become more frequent and more intense, we really have to recalculate how we look at these issues,” said Jim Ammerman, director ofÌýÌýSea Grant program, which is screening Sandy-related grant proposals.

The organization has already funded a study of the breach inÌý‘s wilderness area and another focusing on the effects of theÌýÌýSewage Treatment Plant’s release of raw and partially treated sewage into waterways for weeks after Sandy.

While the data’s being collected now, the results will take some time, Ammerman said.

FIRE ISLAND

°Õ³ó±ðÌýÌýbreach has attracted several studies, from analyzing how sand was moved and where it was deposited to determining the impact on salinity inÌýÌýand tide changes inÌýÌýµþ²¹²â.

Sea Grant has funded the work of Charles Flagg, a research professor atÌý‘s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, to study temperature, salinity, sea level, chlorophyll amounts and the clarity of waters impacted by theÌýÌýbreach. Preliminary results show that salinity has risen inÌýBay and high tide is arriving 20 minutes earlier than before Sandy, Flagg said.

Christopher Gobler, also a professor at School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, is examining water quality changes inÌý. Like Flagg, he’s checking temperature and salinity but also looking at dissolved oxygen and the population of phytoplankton in the water. High levels of phytoplankton can lead to algal blooms, choking off oxygen and creating brown tides.

The breach is an opportunity to look at the bay in a new light, Gobler said. “It [the breach] has the potential, if it stays as is, to really change many aspects of the ecology of theÌýÌýgoing forward,” he said.

But the additional ocean access could bring challenges to the bay, especially to shellfish beds. “There is always the law of unintended consequences,” he said. “What ocean predator will be able to make it intoÌý?”

BARRIER ISLANDS

A team from theÌý‘s Institute for Geophysics this month is studying the storm’s effect around barrier islands, including Fire Island andÌý.

Working withÌý,ÌýÌý²¹²Ô»åÌýÌýresearchers, the team is using radar and seafloor mapping technology to determine where and how deeply sand was deposited, and how the ebb, or receding tide, affected areas.

The University ofÌýÌýhas a “rapid response” fund dedicated to deploying teams quickly to gather data, saidÌý, a senior research scientist at the institute. The cost will probably be about $150,000, he said.

“We didn’t want to wait for a bunch more storms to change the sea floor,”ÌýÌý²õ²¹¾±»å. “We want to know where the storm is ripping up sediment, where it is depositing sediment.”

More funding will be needed to analyze data, but the information is key. “If we didn’t have the data, we couldn’t ask for money,”ÌýÌý²õ²¹¾±»å.

The first part of the study covered Fire Island and the second part will focus aroundÌý. Adelphi has preliminarily obtainedÌýÌýfunding to measure sediment changes, map debris, test for metals such as mercury and look for traces of sewage in sediments, said Beth Christensen, director of the Environmental Studies Program at Adelphi.

SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT AND FLOODING

In addition to the Sea Grant and Adelphi work, Gobler and his team will be looking a nutrient levels and disease-causing pathogens and have already found elevated numbers of the latter. “Right now we’re looking at how the compromised plant is affecting water quality,” he said.

The bacteria’s effect on clam activity, fish migration and sea grass growth will probably be evident in warmer months, he said.

Another study is measuring the impact of flooding around Long Island, which varies by location. “We’re trying to get an idea of what the different magnitude is,” said Jay Tanski, a coastal specialist with Sea Grant. “If you thought it [Sandy] was a 100-year storm and that was really a 40-year storm, it could impact what you rebuild.”

MARSHES AND DUNES

Ìýis looking at how marsh systems are related to flood impacts on communities. Marshes serve as natural barriers and can minimize wave impacts and the health of the marsh can determine flood impacts on land, said Woiwode.

“There was someÌýÌýto communities that had marshes in front of them,” he said. “There are a whole bunch of benefits to healthy coastal ecosystems in place.”

The conservancy, in partnership withÌýÌýin Cullowhee, N.C., is also looking at the effectiveness of natural beach dunes versus engineered dunes.

Knowing what natural or man-made systems worked and protected is critical to preparing for future storms and impacts from rising sea levels, another study area for the Conservancy, Woiwode said.

“If we’re going to manage resources in a changing environment, we should know if they can keep pace,” he said.