Operating under a formal agreement with the National Park Service, a network of Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs) provides research, technical assistance, and education to resource and environmental managers. The North Atlantic Coast CESU published in 2005 a series of Science Synthesis Papers to support the preparation of a new General Management Plan for Fire Island National Seashore.

• The Coastal Geomorphology of Fire Island: a Portrait of Continuity and Change
  (Fire Island National Seashore Science Synthesis Paper)
  by Norbert P. Psuty, Michele Grace, and Jeffrey P. Pace, Rutgers University
  
• Bay Shoreline Physical Processes, Fire Island
  (Fire Island National Seashore Science Synthesis Paper)
  by Karl F. Nordstrom, Rutgers University
  Nancy L. Jackson, New Jersey Institute of Technology
  
• Water Quality and Ecology of Great South Bay
  (Fire Island National Seashore Science Synthesis Paper)
  by Kenneth R. Hinga, University of Rhode Island
  
• Conservation and Management of Living Marine Resources
  (Fire Island National Seashore Science Synthesis Paper, Report coming soon) by David O. Conover, Robert Cerrato, and William Wise, Stony Brook University
  
• Vector-borne Diseases on Fire Island, New York 
  (Fire Island National Seashore Science Synthesis Paper)
  Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR--2005/018
  by Howard S. Ginsberg
  
• White-tailed Deer Ecology and Management on Fire Island
  (Fire Island National Seashore Science Synthesis Paper)
  by H. Brian Underwood
  USGS-Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Additional Natural Resources Reports and Technical Reports are also produced by the National Park Service.

• Recommendations for a Barrier Island Breach Management Plan for Fire Island National Seashore, including the Otis Pike High Dune Wilderness Area, Long Island, New York
  Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2007/075
  by S. J. Williams and M. K. Foley
  National Park Service