Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The Savannah sparrow is among the maritime grassland birds in decline due to threats to its rare coastal habitat.
MARITIME GRASSLANDS
MARITIME GRASSLANDS
are rare coastal habitats restricted to the moraines that formed at the limit of the glaci-
ers on Long Island and other southern New England sites such as Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket,
and Cape Cod. These “edge-of-the-ice communities” are found on the sandy soils that were deposited by the
retreating Wisconsinan glacier and today are influenced by a maritime climate characterized by moderate tem-
peratures, a long frost-free season, ocean winds, and salt spray. Also, much like the grassland communities of
the Midwestern prairie, they seem in the past to have depended for their maintenance upon periodic fires.
Bunch-forming grasses such as little bluestem, common hair grass, and poverty grass dominate these marine-
influenced grasslands.
Sandplain grasslands, such as the Hempstead Plains on Long Island, have formed beyond the influence of
offshore winds and salt spray. In the past, these grasslands were dominated by prairie-type grasses, including
big bluestem, broom sedge, Indian grass, and switch grass; they also evolved with and were maintained by
fire. They continue to provide important breeding and wintering areas to a number of declining grassland
birds, including grasshopper sparrow, upland sandpiper, eastern meadowlark, and Savannah sparrow. Sand-
plain grasslands were also the refuge of the extinct heath hen—the last individual was seen on Martha's Vine-
yard in 1932.
