{"id":1795,"date":"2025-10-15T13:35:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/research-projects\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T03:47:26","slug":"lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts","status":"publish","type":"research-projects","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/research-projects\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\/","title":{"rendered":"LTER: PIE: Dynamics of Coastal Ecosystems in a Region of Rapid Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, and Human Impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over the last 30 years, surface seawater temperatures in the adjacent Gulf of Maine have risen at three times the global average, rates of sea-level rise have accelerated, and precipitation has increased. Coupled with these changes in climate and sea level are substantial changes within the rapidly urbanizing watersheds that influence water, sediment, and nutrient delivery to the marsh and estuary. The Plum Island Ecosystems (PIE) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site is developing a predictive understanding of the response of a linked watershed-marsh-estuarine system in northeastern Massachusetts to rapid environmental change. This large-scale, interdisciplinary project will test how internal feedbacks within the marsh-estuary ecosystem influence the response of geomorphology, biogeochemistry, and food webs to three major drivers: climate, sea-level rise, and human alteration of the watershed. It will address three critical questions. How will the geomorphic configuration of the marsh and estuary be altered by changes in the watershed, sea-level rise, climate change, and feedbacks internal to the coastal system? How will changing climate, watershed inputs, and marsh geomorphology interact to alter marsh and estuarine primary production, organic matter storage, and nutrient cycling? How will key consumer dynamics and estuarine food webs be reshaped by changing environmental drivers, marsh-estuarine geomorphology and biogeochemistry? Cross-system comparisons with other LTERs along gradients of temperature, species composition, tidal range, and sediment supply will further our understanding of long-term change in coastal ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last 30 years, surface seawater temperatures in the adjacent Gulf of Maine have risen at three times the global average, rates of sea-level rise have accelerated, and precipitation has increased. Coupled with these changes in climate and sea level are substantial changes within the rapidly urbanizing watersheds that influence water, sediment, and nutrient [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[21],"principal-investigator":[372],"funding-agency":[314],"class_list":["post-1795","research-projects","type-research-projects","status-publish","hentry","tag-past","principal-investigator-robert-gilmore-pontius-jr","funding-agency-national-science-foundation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>LTER: PIE: Dynamics of Coastal Ecosystems in a Region of Rapid Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, and Human Impacts | George Perkins Marsh Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/research-projects\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LTER: PIE: Dynamics of Coastal Ecosystems in a Region of Rapid Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, and Human Impacts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the last 30 years, surface seawater temperatures in the adjacent Gulf of Maine have risen at three times the global average, rates of sea-level rise have accelerated, and precipitation has increased. Coupled with these changes in climate and sea level are substantial changes within the rapidly urbanizing watersheds that influence water, sediment, and nutrient [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/research-projects\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"George Perkins Marsh Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ClarkUniversityWorcester\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T03:47:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@clarkuniversity\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/research-projects\\\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/research-projects\\\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\\\/\",\"name\":\"LTER: PIE: Dynamics of Coastal Ecosystems in a Region of Rapid Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, and Human Impacts | George Perkins Marsh Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-15T17:35:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-17T03:47:26+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/research-projects\\\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/research-projects\\\/1795#breadcrumbs\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":0,\"name\":\"ClarkU\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"George Perkins Marsh Institute\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Research-projects\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/wp-json\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Research-projects\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Research-projects\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Research-projects\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/research-projects\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":6,\"name\":\"Research-projects\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/research-projects\\\/1795\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/\",\"name\":\"George Perkins Marsh Institute\",\"description\":\"Clark University\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/marsh-institute\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LTER: PIE: Dynamics of Coastal Ecosystems in a Region of Rapid Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, and Human Impacts | George Perkins Marsh Institute","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/marsh-institute\/research-projects\/lter-pie-dynamics-of-coastal-ecosystems-in-a-region-of-rapid-climate-change-sea-level-rise-and-human-impacts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LTER: PIE: Dynamics of Coastal Ecosystems in a Region of Rapid Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, and Human Impacts","og_description":"Over the last 30 years, surface seawater temperatures in the adjacent Gulf of Maine have risen at three times the global average, rates of sea-level rise have accelerated, and precipitation has increased. 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