Impacts to Coastal Ecosystems U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2013–3096

October 2013

Start with Science to Build Safer Communities

Hurricane Sandy Science Plan—Impacts to Coastal 

Ecosystems, Habitats, and Fish and Wildlife

“The understanding we gain from these studies will set the stage for better models addressing 

future hazard scenarios and will help coastal communities be better prepared to withstand and 

respond to catastrophic storms.”—Suzette Kimball, U.S. Geological Survey Acting Director

Meeting the Science Needs of the Nation in the Wake of Hurricane 

Sandy—A U.S. Geological Survey Science Plan for Support of 

Restoration and Recovery

Hurricane Sandy devastated some of the most heavily populated eastern 

coastal areas of the Nation. With a storm surge peaking at more than 19 feet, 

the powerful landscape-altering destruction of Hurricane Sandy is a stark 

reminder of why the Nation must become more resilient to coastal hazards. In 

response to this natural disaster, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) received 

a total of $41.2 million in supplemental appropriations from the Department 

of the Interior (DOI) to support response, recovery, and rebuilding efforts. 

These funds support a science plan (Buxton and others, 2013) that will 

provide critical scientific information necessary to inform management decisions for recovery of coastal communities, and aid in preparation for future 

natural hazards. This science plan is designed to coordinate continuing USGS 

activities with stakeholders and other agencies to improve data collection and 

analysis that will guide recovery and restoration efforts. The science plan is 

split into five distinct themes:

• Coastal topography and bathymetry

• Impacts to coastal beaches and barriers

• Impacts of storm surge, including disturbed estuarine and bay hydrology

• Impacts on environmental quality and persisting contaminant exposures

• Impacts to coastal ecosystems, habitats, and fish and wildlife

This fact sheet focuses on impacts to coastal ecosystems, habitats, and fish 

and wildlife.

Theme Stakeholders

Natural coastal ecosystems are among the Nation’s most important 

resources. They help attenuate the energy of storms, filter sediment and pollution, provide wildlife habitat, provide recreation, and other valued ecosystem 

services. All of these ecosystem services are important to people living on 

the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coasts, as well as agencies including the U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Park Service (NPS), National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, and other Federal and state agencies tasked with protecting 

coastal resources. In support of these informational needs the USGS seeks to 

A pair of photos both showing the same site looking west across Smith 

Island, Virginia, in 2009 (top) and after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (bottom). 

The differences in the two images show how Hurricane Sandy’s winds, 

high tide, and storm surge carried sand from beaches and dunes far 

inland to cover coastal dune vegetation and wetlands. Salt water was 

also pushed inland by the storm.

specifically understand how marshes, forests, and wildlife 

on public and adjoining lands were affected by the storm, 

and to use that knowledge to help predict how these may be 

affected by future storms. An improved understanding of the 

impacts of Hurricane Sandy on coastal wetlands, and how 

those wetlands can help attenuate storm energy, is valuable 

not only to managers of coastal USFWS National Wildlife 
Refuges and NPS National Parks, but also for coastal communities 

that can benefit from coastal barriers.

Coastal Ecosystems, Habitats, and Fish and Wildlife 

Projects

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is responsible for 

management of public lands and species affected by Hurricane 

Sandy. These include approximately 30 National Wildlife Refuges 

and 6 National Parks and Seashores that provide critical habitat 

for migratory waterfowl and federally listed species. They include 

coastal barriers that protect wetlands and coastal communities, and 

provide recreational opportunities for millions of visitors, including 

those from nearby urban and metropolitan areas in the Boston to 

Washington, D.C. corridor. These habitats support social systems, 

economic and food security, environmental stability, and other 

ecosystem services.

It is essential that the USGS, as the DOI science agency, 

provides science to support assessment, response, recovery, and 

increased resiliency of these natural resources. Natural resource 

managers of DOI lands have trust responsibilities under the Federal 

Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, as 

well as additional cooperative responsibilities with State and local 

authorities responsible for the protection of native, commercial, and 

recreationally harvested fish and wildlife species. Decisionmakers need to understand the long-term consequences of hurricane 

effects on wildlife and their habitats in order to effectively develop 

and implement conservation strategies. How animal species fared 

along the coast during Hurricane Sandy, and how their food supplies, habitats, and reproductive success may have been impacted, 

are all questions of importance. The information produced from 

post-hurricane studies conducted by the USGS and its partners will 

provide essential baseline and long-term support for coastal zone 

planning, conservation planning, resource management, hazard 

reduction, and risk mitigation in the wake of natural disasters such 

as Hurricane Sandy.

Assess Storm Impact to Wetland Integrity and Stability to 

Support Recovery Decisions

USGS expertise with wetland ecology and remote imagery 

will be applied to document changes to Northeast and mid-Atlantic 

coastal wetland changes resulting from Hurricane Sandy. Fine-scale 

elevation changes can be determined using data from the Surface 

Elevation Table (SET) (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/set/) network currently (2013) maintained by the USGS and partners. Remote imagery, the data from SETs, and marsh sediment cores will be collected 

and analyzed along the Northeast coast to produce regional assessments of coastal marsh conditions. Additionally, the Submergence 

Vulnerability Index (Stagg and others, 2013) will be used to assess 

wetland vulnerability to future sea-level rise and storm events. This 

project also will document multidecadal changes to the Nation’s 

Northeast and mid-Atlantic coastline.

Assess Storm Impact to Waterfowl and Migratory Birds to 

Support Conservation

The USGS will document the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on 

coastal birds using historic and current data. To document these 

impacts, the USGS will:

• Establish pre-storm and current population numbers;

• Establish study sites on DOI trust lands and other public lands to 

study declining populations of secretive marsh and shore birds; 

• Gather radar and field data on migratory bird flight patterns preand post-storm, and assess potential for changes to their migratory stop-over habitats, resident habitats, food sources, reproductive capacities, and phenology; 

• Calculate mean bird density for multiple migration seasons to 

establish a baseline of bird distributions before the storm; and

• Gather data necessary for mapping changes to wildlife habitat.

Document Wetland Conditions and Food Supply for Bird 

Migration and Breeding, and Assess Coast-Wide Storm 

Impacts to Coastal Forests

The USGS will gather information on the complex relations 

linking forest type, structure, and size thresholds to coastal buffering 

capacity, which is needed to improve risk assessment and mitigation. This information will classify coastal forest types and storm 

impacts across the Nation’s entire Atlantic coastal zone for national 

parks and wildlife refuges based on forest condition, mortality, 

species composition, woody debris and wrack deposits, high water 

survey of flooding extent, and residual soil salinity correlated with 

storm force of wind speed and surge penetration. Salinity and 

water-level data from available USGS and NOAA streamgages 

will be used to generate isohaline maps across the coastal zone. A 

coast-wide map will show the various forest types and conditions of 

coastal forest affected by tides and storm surges, which will be useful for predicting forest recovery and prioritizing potential success 

and alternatives for forest restoration.

Develop Data-Driven Models and Monitoring Networks

The USGS will use monitoring network data to develop 

models of storm impacts to vegetation and coastal morphology, and 

to forecast how alterations in barrier configuration and processes 

impact the location and health of wetlands, submerged habitats, and 

ecosystem services. Synthesis of these network data will deliver 

numerical models of impacts to habitats and wildlife to help assess 

Hurricane Sandy impacts on the composition, distribution, and productivity of vegetation. The USGS will modify current web-based 

tools to deliver existing and new ecological models, data standards, 

visualization and analysis tools, and decision support tools to aid 

scientific research and resource management in the Hurricane Sandy 

impact areas.

References Cited

Buxton, H.T., Andersen, M.E., Focazio, M.J., Haines, J.W., Hainly, 

R.A., Hippe, D.J., and Sugarbaker, L.J., 2013, Meeting the science 

needs of the Nation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy—A U.S. Geological Survey science plan for support of restoration and recovery: 

U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1390, 26 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/

circ/1390/. 

Stagg, C.L., Sharp, L.A., McGinnis, T.E., and Snedden, G.A., 2013, 

Submergence Vulnerability Index development and application to 

Coastwide Reference Monitoring System Sites and Coastal Wetlands 

Planning, Protection and Restoration Act projects: U.S. Geological 

Survey Open-File Report 2013–1163, 12 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/

of/2013/1163/.

For More Information:

• http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hazards-events/sandy/