Science

What’s the Difference Between Neptune Pass and Mardi Gras Pass?

What’s the Difference Between Neptune Pass and Mardi Gras Pass?

In the final miles of the Mississippi River, two naturally occurring diversions on the east bank of the Mississippi River provide vital real-world examples of the power of the river. Their differences – and similarities – are instructive examples for the future of restoration projects along the river.Both Neptune Pass and Mardi Gras Pass are diversions on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish that formed naturally and continue to build land in their outfall areas. The …

New Orleans Region On Track for Top 5 Wettest Year On Record

How Climate Change is Delivering More Water Than Ever and Freshening Our Estuaries Louisiana and Mississippi residents are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, including more intense rainfall, stronger hurricanes and warmer temperatures. Since 1970, according to data from the National Weather Service and Climate Central, the summer months have been trending much wetter. This trend has many more implications to our communities, basins and ecosystems than just costly inland flooding. A long-term wetter climate along the Gulf Coast …

Hurricane Ida and Flotant Marsh: An Initial Look at the Storm’s Impacts to Louisiana’s Wetlands

Hurricane Ida made landfall August 29, 2021, near Port Fourchon, bringing maximum sustained winds of 159 miles per hour and destruction to many coastal communities in south Louisiana, including Ironton, Pointe-au-Chien, Grand Bayou Village and Houma. Hurricanes have always threatened coastal residents, but the rapid loss of Louisiana’s wetlands over the past century have left these communities more and more vulnerable with each passing year. Coastal wetlands can act as a buffer as storm surge from hurricanes moves inland, but …

Oyster Biology and Habitat Suitability Analysis

Louisiana’s oyster industry has contributed to over 20% of the nation’s catch in pounds for 75% of years since 1950. It has long been a lucrative industry, rooted in culture, and supporting local families and businesses. The ongoing losses to Louisiana’s coastline necessitate manmade interventions that come in a variety of forms; diversions, dredging, shoreline armoring and reef building to name a few. These changes also affect the aquatic creatures that live in our estuary. The ones that can swim …

If you care about our coast or fishing, you should know about Hydrocoast!

Louisiana’s coast is dynamic. This simple but profoundly important trait of coastal Louisiana is largely due to the fact that water is always moving around our coast. This plays out in a variety of ways in our coastal estuaries, where fresh water from the Mississippi River mixes with salty water from the Gulf. Rain falls, and rivers flood fresh water areas. An east wind blows, and an extra high tide pushes salty Gulf water inland. Every day, the tides driven …

Louisiana is Leading the Way in Real-time Sea Level Rise Monitoring

A recent study from Tulane University made headlines last month when it suggested that relative sea level rise – rising seas combined with the sinking or disappearance of land within a specific region – may be underestimated in river deltas across the world. The study specifically looked at measurements of relative sea level rise from tide gauges, instruments typically anchored deep in the ground that record changes in water surface elevation. Researchers concluded that tide gauges alone couldn’t accurately measure …

Exploring the Connections between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico

The Mississippi River has long been recognized as an important influence to the Gulf of Mexico, but to date, there have been few efforts to effectively summarize all the ways the river impacts the larger Gulf ecosystem. With funding from the NOAA RESTORE Science Program, a working group of scientists came together to analyze what is known – and what remains unknown—about the effects the Mississippi River and its delta have on the Gulf to help guide decision-makers as they …

5 Places in Plaquemines Parish Building Land Because of the Mississippi River

A river runs through Plaquemines Parish, but it’s not just any river. It’s one of the largest in the world – the Mighty Mississippi. The river and its distributaries built Plaquemines Parish over the last 1,000 years, depositing sediment and building thousands of acres of highly productive wetlands. Levees, built along the river for navigation and flood protection, have helped communities in the parish to flourish but have also nearly completely cut off the river from the delta it once …

What Role Does Adaptive Management Play in Restoring Our Coast?

Restore the Mississippi River Delta and ESSA Technologies, Ltd. recently hosted a workshop for state and federal agencies and others working on the Environmental Impact Statement and adaptive management program for the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. Experts with decades of experience developing adaptive management plans for large-scale water resource infrastructure projects presented insights and lessons learned from projects around North America, including the California Bay-Delta, Missouri River, Platte River and Okanagan River in Canada. Adaptive management is not a new concept, …

A Tale of Two Basins: Why One is Thriving While the Other is Dying

To understand the issues of land loss affecting Louisiana’s coast and the restoration solutions needed to address it, one needs only compare two neighboring basins on the coast. In the Atchafalaya Basin, lush, green fingers of land push out toward the Gulf of Mexico, building more and more acreage every year.  In the Terrebonne Basin to the east, land is rapidly disappearing at one of the highest rates on the planet. Why are there such stark differences between these two …

What New England Marshes Can Teach Us About Coastal Louisiana Restoration

I’ve studied coastal wetland restoration in Louisiana since the 1990s and have visited with landowners and managers who want to slow wetland loss and build new land across the coast, from Lake Sabine to Slidell. I’ve also studied coastal wetland management and restoration outside Louisiana, by reading articles and attending conferences, but until recently, I’d only visited a handful of sites. This summer, I traveled to New England to participate in the workshop “Tidal Marsh Restoration: A Traveling Course from …

Deltas Around the World are Facing Uncertain Futures – Using the River Can Help

Deltaic systems around the world, such as Louisiana’s Mississippi River Delta and France’s Rhône River Delta, are facing growing consequences from climate change and sea level rise. Sea levels are projected to rise a staggering 1 to 2 cm per year by the end of this century, and deltas around the world will not be able to survive if no action is taken to protect them. In a recent paper published in Science of the Total Environment, researchers analyzed the …

Estuaries 101: 3 things to know about this important ecosystem

Help Us Celebrate National Estuaries Week 2017 September 16-23 is National Estuaries Week! Learn more about events in your area and other ways to get involved at www.estuaries.org/national-estuaries-week. 1. What is an estuary? Estuaries are transition zones between fresh and salty waterbodies. Estuaries are bodies of water, as well the surrounding coastal wetlands, that are generally found where a river meets the sea – like the Mississippi River Delta. Because estuaries exist where two different types of waterbodies meet, they …

Finding the Sweet Spot: Studying Oyster Habitat Suitability in the Pontchartrain Basin

Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) have been cultivated in Louisiana’s coastal waters since the mid-1800s. For the last 35 years, the industry has produced more oysters in Louisiana than any other state. In Louisiana, the oyster industry is smaller in size than the pogy or shrimp fisheries but is similar in value to crawfish or alligator harvests.  Understanding oyster habitat dynamics over space and time in the Pontchartrain Basin is important because of the cultural and commercial significance as well as …

Can Louisiana Coastal Restoration Succeed in the Face of Increasing Climate Impacts and Energy Costs?

Co-authored by Emily Ewing, Restoration Projects Intern, Environmental Defense Fund Coastal Louisiana faces a triple threat from rising sea levels, increased storm intensity and growing energy costs. While these are not necessarily new issues, there are growing concerns over the seeming inevitability and full reality of the implications of these threats. Without fast action, Louisiana will lose thousands of more acres of wetlands that provide critical habitat to wildlife and fisheries, as well as risk reduction benefits to coastal communities …