About Nantucket

Description of Nantucket Island

Nantucket covers approximately 50 square miles, and although it is isolated geographically, it is only 26 miles south of Cape Cod, MA. This half-moon shaped terminal moraine, created by Pleistocene glaciation between 22,000 and 14,000 years ago, measures approximately 14 miles long by 3.5 miles wide. The island has been re-worked and reshaped significantly by oceanic currents and wind. Although Nantucket has been under Native American influence from about 9,000 years ago, and affected by European settlers since 1659, its relative isolation from mainland sources of pollution have kept it comparatively pristine until major development began some 30 years ago. Hence, both its maritime and terrestrial ecosystems offer a chance to study environmental degradation at its inception. It is still possible to find relatively unaltered habitats including the Field Station site, land that assumes ever greater significance as development proceeds around it. The Nantucket Field Station serves as a natural "control" laboratory (almost a "closed" natural system) for understanding human and coastal ecosystem interactions.

In addition, Nantucket's wide assortment of terrestrial and marine habitats under conservation ownership, including heath, grassland, upland, upland scrub, old fields, pond, bog, fresh-water marsh, swamp, barrier beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes, shallow harbor waters, and open ocean, support a high degree of biodiversity for an island of this size and are available for teaching and research. In fact, Nantucket is one of the most important areas in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts for harboring rare and endangered plant species.

Nantucket's heathlands are unique in eastern North America, including 25 plant and five animal species considered rare, endangered, or of special concern. This special habitat is dominated by lichens, grasses, and dwarf shrubs. It evolved as a result of Native American timber use and fire followed by over 200 years of intense grazing activities promoted by European settlers. Today these heaths are preserved by conservation ownership and managed by brush cutting and controlled burns.

Biogeographically perched on a north/ south floristic division, and proximal to the warm Gulf Stream, Nantucket serves as the southern boundary for many northern plant species and the northern limit for many southern forms. Proximity to warm Stream waters insures the same diversity for marine animals, fish, and invertebrates. Dry land during Pleistocene glaciation, Georges Bank was a refuge for plants and animals displaced from the rest of New England and the island still hosts a high species diversity as it represents the tiny remaining remnant of this refuge.

Barrier beaches supply nesting sites for endangered piping plovers and both least and common terns. Located on the Atlantic flyway, Nantucket sees a high diversity of spring and fall migrants as well as a diverse marine and terrestrial bird population. The annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count regularly records over 120 species. Much of Nantucket (over 12,000 of its 30,000 acres) is preserved for the future as >40% of the island's land and shores is in conservation ownership.

Due to its 9,000 year history of human occupation, Nantucket is an active site for archaeological research. Given its glacial origin and low lying heath vegetation glacial features such as moraines, kettle holes, outwash plain and fosse valley are easily seen and interpreted. As it is a sandy glacial island with some 28 miles of rapidly changing and eroding beach exposed to the open North Atlantic Ocean, coastal geomorphology is an important instructional and research topic.

Nantucket's isolation creates unique challenges. For instance, the island's freshwater resources originate directly from precipitation and infiltration; therefore, this sole source aquifer is quite susceptible to human activity. Human impact has also been a defining factor for Nantucket. The historical settlement of Nantucket dates from very early times. Well known for the fishing and whaling trade of an earlier era, the island in the last several decades has been "rediscovered" and has become an elite vacation and second-home location. The environmental and social impacts of these trends are vividly represented here and offer an outstanding opportunity for an integrated assessment of human-environmental interactions.

Nantucket Harbor receives relatively little input of excess nutrients and pollutants (compared to other coastal areas), and has historically supported commercial scallop fishing. The inhabitants of the island are environmentally conscious and interested in economic development in an environmentally sustainable manner. Interactions between people and the land, ocean, atmosphere and biosphere can therefore be studied here with few of the complications experienced elsewhere. For example, past aquaculture of shellfish at Nantucket was able to proceed without acquiring the diseases that plague shellfish along the Eastern U.S. coastline. Because of this isolation, Nantucket's salt marshes, extremely important habitat for marine life and migratory birds, are relatively pristine and primarily affected by land use changes and conditions on the island itself. This provides a unique opportunity for linking ecological studies with integrated coastal zone management activities for sustainable development.

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