What is the New York Bioscape?    

The New York Bioscape is a 100-mile radius (average) area stretching out from midtown New York City . This expansion includes such natural areas as the Catskills, Pocono Mountains , and New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Bioscape's 28,000 square miles is a complex mosaic of human-use areas and natural lands and waters that supports 24 million people or 8% of the U.S. population. It is surprisingly rich in biodiversity, and contains varied habitats; from marine waters to coastal plains to Appalachian highlands. In addition, the New York Bioscape is a part-time home to numerous nationally and internationally important migratory species.

The NY Bioscape has 5 main objectives:

• Conduct conservation medicine studies focusing on the interactions between wildlife health, human health and ecosystem health
• Investigate human-induced environmental deradation, habitat fragmentation, and urban sprawl
• Create a “New York Bioscape” conservation paradigm for the region bounded by a 100-mile radius from Manhattan
• Enhance dialogue, research collaboration, strategic planning and regional evaluation among conservationists, ecologists, land-use planners, public health physicians and veterinarians
• Share lessons learned with other land-scape level conservation projects taking place worldwide

Selected NY Bioscape Projects

A team of 35 ecologists, educators, wildlife veterinarians, and public health experts from Wildlife Trust and 14 other academic, non-profit, and government institutions are working together to study our region's ecological health and find ways for people and nature to co-exist. Of the 15 wildlife projects underway, three examples are:

Sea Turtle Health Assessment:

The Peconic Bay of eastern Long Island is a crucial summer habitat for juvenile sea turtles, including the endangered loggerhead and Kemp's ridley turtles. This study, in collaboration with local commercial fishermen and scientists from Cornell University , The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, is assessing the health and conservation status of the sea turtles that visit the Bay each summer. The team also is testing the exciting possibility that the turtles could serve as charismatic "sentinels of ecosystem health" - that is, their health might reflect the ecological health of Peconic Bay itself.

Seabirds as Bioindicators of Ecological Health  

This project includes both a study of common terns living along the New Jersey shore and a seabird monitoring program for coastal New York , New Jersey , and Connecticut . The tern research is being conducted by scientists from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to determine current and historical levels of heavy metals in the birds' eggs (specimen eggs have been archived for the last 32 years). The work will allow us to better understand if changes in environmental policy over the last three decades are reflected in the contaminant levels measured in the tern eggs. The method also will allow us to collect eggs from different beaches of New Jersey and New York to determine geographic differences in heavy metal contamination. Terns and other Bioscape seabirds also will be observed as part of an eastern U.S. seabird health program called “SeaNet.” This project, in partnership with Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, will focus on monitoring our local seabirds to understand the causes of their mortality, as an indicator of coastal marine health.

Coyotes: Predators in the Urban-to-Rural Landscape:

Top-level carnivores play an essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. For example, eliminating coyotes has been shown to have negative impact on songbird populations. This project, in collaboration with Columbia University and the Center for Humans and Nature, is investigating the ecology and health of the eastern coyotes living in the Hudson Highlands of New York . We are focusing on the relationships between coyotes and human land use practices, so that a scientific foundation can be established for solving potential human-coyote conflicts. By radio-tracking individual coyotes, we will let them serve as “landscape detectives,” highlighting where human-coyote conflict is most likely and what the consequences are from an ecosystem health perspective.

Ecological Impacts of Introduced Mute Swans in the Hudson River

Mute swans ( Cygnus olo r) were introduced into the eastern United States from England in the late 1800's for their ornamental value, and their numbers have been steadily increasing ever since. U.S. mute swan populations are concentrated along the Atlantic Coast, but some also are found in the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest.  A combination of factors, including the species' high reproductive rate, a lack of natural predators, and an abundance of suitable habitat, has contributed to their success. Feral mute swans in the eastern U.S. have increased from 5,800 birds in 1986 to probably over 15,000 swans today. Suspected negative impacts include destruction of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), behavioral displacement of native waterbirds, and spread of pathogens that could threaten human and wildlife health. The first phase of this project includes the investigation of swan occurrence along the Hudson, in time (seasonally) and in space (relative to SAV beds). This is being accomplished by bi-monthly aerial surveys to mark numbers and locations of swans along the river from Tappan Zee Bridge to Troy, NY. A GIS map of SAV in the Hudson (courtesy of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation) will be expanded to include swan locations and other relevant ecological variables. The second phase of the project will focus on the foraging and spatial ecology of the swans. We anticipate that assessment of the ecological impacts of invasive species on ecosystem health will become an important theme of the New York Bioscape Initiative.

For additional information please visit: www.nybioscape.org.