The sections below describe the field activities conducted by the research teams in the Phase II area of the Long Island Sound Habitat Mapping initiative to collect data to address the same core elements identified for the Phase I Pilot Program.

Acoustic Mapping

NOAA has been collecting hydrographic data in the Phase II area going back to 1883, with digital Bathymetric Attributed Grid data sets in the area going back to 2003 up through to 2015.  Much of this data was used to form a basemap of the bathymetry and backscatter data in the Phase II area.  However, there were 30 areas identified in the Phase II area where data didn't exist, or was of poor quality. Teams from the Stony Brook University and the University of Connecticut conducted several field campaigns to fill in the data gaps during 2017 and 2018.

Details of LISMaRC Acoustic Mapping in the Phase II area: https://lismap.uconn.edu/lismarc-acoustic-mapping-in-the-phase-ii-area/

Sediment Grain Size and Sedimentary Environments

In the Spring, 2018 the team from the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory conducted a survey to collect sediment grabs, cores and sub-bottom profiling data.

Details on this survey can be found here: https://lismap.uconn.edu/spring-2018-ldeo-queens-college-sediment-and-sub-bottom-survey/

In the Summer, 2018, the Lamont team conducted a second comprehensive survey to collect additional sediment cores and grabs.

Details on this survey can be found here: https://lismap.uconn.edu/summer-2018-ldeo-queens-college-sediment-sampling/

Ecological Characterization

The Ecological Characterization for the Phase II are occurred during three research cruises onboard the Research Vessel Connecticut that also provided at-sea time to conduct a large portion of the Physical Oceanography observation campaign.  In addition replicate sediment samples from the SEABOSS cruises were shared with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory team for additional sediment grain size analyses.

The first cruise occurred in late November - early December, 2017 and utilized the US Geological Survey's SEABOSS to both collect sediment  samples for the infernal component and digital still and video for the epifaunal data: https://lismap.uconn.edu/lismarc-fall-2017-cruise-summary/

The second cruise again utilized the SEABOSS in mid-May, 2018: https://lismap.uconn.edu/spring-2018-seaboss-cruise-summary/

The third cruise, utilized the Kraken2 ROV for those areas that weren't able to be sampled by the SEABOSS due to rugged topography or hard substrates: https://lismap.uconn.edu/spring-2018-kraken2-rov-cruise-summary/

Physical Oceanography

A large portion of the Physical Oceanographic data were collected in tandem with the Ecological Characterization cruises.  This entailed evening sampling collecting Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data and frequent casts to collect conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) profile data.  Additional cruises were conducted to deploy the seafloor observing platforms utilized in the Phase I Pilot program.