LINE OnLINE Overview LINE OnLINE OverviewLong Island's Natural Environment Online (LINE OnLINE) is an experimental World Wide Web "museum" being developed by the Earth Science Educational Resource Center at the Center for High Pressure Research. LINE OnLINE's mission is to explore a wide variety of topics concerning Long Island's natural environment, including geology, biological communities, coastal geology and ecology, the marine environment, groundwater, and bodies of fresh water. Lesson plans for teachers will be included.
One important goal of LINE OnLINE is to encourage educators to teach science by engaging their students in scientific research projects. Exhibits will be developed and posted that describe projects that some students are doing.
Long Island is about 118 miles long and has a maximum width of about 23 miles. Its surface is composed primarily of material that was transported to Long Island by continental glaciers that came from Connecticut and other areas to the north. Long Island is completely surrounded by salt water and is bordered on the north by Long Island Sound and the south by the Atlantic. The East River separates Long Island from Manhattan and the Bronx, and The Race and other channels border Long Island on the east.
Due to its proximity to both the Atlantic and the North American mainland, Long Island's natural environment is a product of maritime and continental phenomena. This pertains to the geology as well as the biological environment.
Long Island's surface is clothed by two main forest types. In areas where the soil contains an abundance of silt, oak-hickory forests predominate. Where the soil is sandy and porous, pine barrens woodlands occur. The species makeup of these forests vary greatly, and in many places these forest types intergrade.
In protected areas within the intertidal zone along the shore, salt marshes form in the intertidal zone. On the South Shore, this protection is offered by barrier beaches, while on the North Shore, it is provided by natural harbors. Wind creates large sand dunes on the barrier beaches. Here, the morphology of the vegetation is strongly controlled by the wind.
Three major aquifers lie beneath Long Island's surface, and together, contain about 60 trillion gallons of groundwater. The aquifers are supplied with water by precipitation. Where Long Island's surface is low enough in elevation to penetrate the water table, bodies of fresh water, such as ponds, streams, marshes and bogs occur. Groundwater exits the aquifer system through evaporation, stream flow and subsurface seepage into the surrounding salt water.
The Long Island that we know today is only a snapshot in geologic time. Just as geologic and ecological phenomena have created what we see today, similar types of changes will occur in the future. Added to this is the entrance of human activity into the picture.
If you have material regarding Long Island's natural environment that you would like to add to LINE OnLINE, or if you would like us to create a link to your site, please contact Glenn Richard at richard@sbmp04.ess.sunysb.edu.
Last modified April 9, 1997