“Evaluation of Caffeine’s Utility as a Tracer of Sewage in Long Island Sound” and Other Topics at the Long Island Sound Conference

If you feel the need to come to terms with a lot (and I mean a lot) of the current academic science research about Long Island Sound, attend the Long Island Sound Biennial Research Conference. Over two and a half days, at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, there will be 47 consecutive 15-minute presentations (with coffee breaks, lunch, dinner and two night’s sleep thrown in) as well as 25 poster displays.

I counted them up on the agenda and then wondered who would be able to sit through and absorb them all. The answer, of course, is scientists and students. The conference is clearly not organized for the lay person (or for the stamina-challenged).

In the first hour of the first day, for example, there are presentations on “An Overview of Process Studies of the Long Island Sound Integrated Coastal Observing System, LISICOS” and “Benthic Foraminifera: Ecosystem Monitors of Eutrophication in Long Island Sound” and “Mechanism(s) of Eutrophication-Related 15N Enrichment in Long Island Sound” and “Evaluation of Caffeine’s Utility as a Tracer of Sewage in Long Island Sound,” after which you’ll probably need more coffee.

The event runs from the first thing Thursday morning, October 26, until noon on Saturday, October 28.