The Plum Island Ecosystems LTER (PIE) is an integrated research, education, and outreach program with the goal of developing a predictive understanding of the long-term response of watershed and estuarine ecosystems to changes in climate, land use, and sea level and to apply this knowledge to the wise management and development of policy to protect the natural resources of the coastal zone.
PIE research is focused in the estuary and watersheds of Plum Island Sound in northeastern Massachusetts. The estuary is fed by the Ipswich, Rowley, and Parker Rivers with a combined drainage basin of 609km2. The Plum Island Sound estuary is a coastal plain, bar-built estuary with extensive areas of productive tidal marshes - the largest expanse of intertidal marsh in the Northeast.
PIE is administered by The Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory and is a member of the US Long Term Ecological Research Network funded by the National Science Foundation.
