Science

Getting back to nature: New study looks at the past, present and future of the Mississippi River Delta

Getting back to nature: New study looks at the past, present and future of the Mississippi River Delta

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D, Coastal Scientist, National Wildlife Federation The Mississippi River has played an important role in the history, physical and economic growth of the United States. However, the Mississippi River and the delta region it built didn’t always look the way they do today. In an article by Michael Blum, Ph.D. and Harry Roberts, Ph.D. titled “The Mississippi Delta Region: Past, Present, and Future” published in The Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences (vol. 40), researchers …

On the first day of hurricane season, a call for coastal restoration

By Amanda Moore, National Wildlife Federation Water. Flashlight. Batteries. Canned food. It’s hurricane season. In coastal Louisiana, we’ll keep a close eye on the weather until November — hoping to dodge each swirling white storm that crops up on the radar. As the world witnessed in 2005 during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana is dangerously vulnerable to strong storms. One major reason for our vulnerability is the collapse of coastal wetlands in the Mississippi River Delta in southern Louisiana. Since the 1930s, due …

Managing the Mississippi River for ecosystem restoration, navigation and flood protection: A win-win-win

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., Coastal Scientist, National Wildlife Federation The Mississippi River is one of the largest rivers in the world, carrying water, nutrients and sediment across America’s heartland, through Louisiana and into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Study is a Louisiana Coastal Area project that has recently been initiated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. The purpose of this 5-year, large-scale study is to …

Study looks at sediment and water flow through Mississippi River, helps scientists plan effective restoration projects

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation The sediment and water transported by the Mississippi River built much of the ecologically-rich Mississippi River Delta and Louisiana coastline. But over the last decade, manmade modifications throughout the river basin to improve navigation and flood protection have disconnected the river from its delta. This has reduced the amount of sediment carried by the river and severed the connection between the river and the adjacent wetlands it naturally built. Sediment is a …

Report: Reengineer Mississippi River Delta To Protect Nation’s Economic, Ecological Assets

Scientists call for “immediate action” to address disintegration of delta News Release (Baton Rouge, La.—April 11, 2012) Building a series of engineered structures called diversions along the lower Mississippi River will yield tens of billions of dollars in net annual benefits to the nation and hedge against future disasters, according to a new report co-authored by 22 prominent scientists and engineers. The report, “Answering 10 Fundamental Questions about the Mississippi River Delta,” makes a scientific and economic case for restoring the …

NWF tour finds BP oil still soaking Louisiana marshes, menacing wildlife

This story was originally posted on the National Wildlife Federation‘s Wildlife Promise blog. By Miles Grant, National Wildlife Federation The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) this week led a boat trip to Louisiana marshes hit hard by the Gulf oil disaster. The trip made depressingly clear that while national attention has moved on and Congress still hasn’t passed legislation to restore the Gulf, much BP oil remains, it’s easy to find and it’s never far from the Gulf’s wildlife. The trip out of Myrtle Grove …

New research will help scientists and coastal planners design wetland restoration projects

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation Wetlands are some of the most economically valuable and ecologically productive environments in the world. Often considered “the kidneys of the landscape,” wetlands help decrease the effects of floods and droughts, cleanse polluted waters, protect shorelines, control erosion and serve as sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide. They are also important habitat for a variety of flora and fauna. But human activities and natural processes have greatly reduced the amount of wetlands worldwide. …

Turbidity monitoring at Caernarvon diversion provides real-time data for effective river management

By Andy Baker, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation For two years, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) has been testing the turbidity of the water flowing through the Caernarvon diversion, 15 miles downriver from New Orleans. Turbidity – described as cloudiness or muddiness – is a measure of how much sediment is suspended in the water. Recently, the diversion managers at the Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCPR) used turbidity data for the first time to briefly increase flow …

Mississippi River Delta Restoration Campaign voices strong support for 2012 Coastal Master Plan

By David Muth, National Wildlife Federation On Feb. 25, seven organizations sent joint comments to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), voicing strong support for the Draft 2012 Coastal Master Plan. The comments propose a number of ways we feel the master plan can be strengthened and a number of actions we believe the state should undertake going forward. The tenor of the comments is one of praise for the master plan. We believe the plan builds upon and …

New report outlines recommendations for anticipating sea level rise impacts on Louisiana’s coast

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation Rising sea levels expose low-lying coastal areas to increased flooding, saltwater intrusion, and erosion, which can further increase their vulnerability to the effects of storms. The Mississippi River Delta along coastal Louisiana is particularly sensitive to sea level rise, as the river-driven geology causes the land to sink, amplifying local sea level rise. In order for coastal managers to design restoration projects that will anticipate patterns of land loss and protect coastal …

Predictive models form scientific backbone of Louisiana Coastal Master Plan

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation Louisiana’s Draft 2012 Coastal Master Plan is a bold, ecosystem-scale restoration strategy that outlines a 50-year plan to combat the land loss epidemic in the Mississippi River Delta. The plan puts forth solutions to addressing the destructive impacts of sea-level rise, subsidence, increased storm intensity, marsh collapse and other factors on Louisiana’s disappearing coastline. The plan is a science-based approach that, at its core, uses a suite of linked models to predict …

Researchers examine Gulf oil spill’s effects on southeastern Louisiana salt marsh

By Alisha Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation The BP oil disaster introduced more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, just off the southeastern Louisiana coast. An extensive effort is currently underway to assess the full damage of this catastrophic event on the rich and complex Gulf ecosystem. A study lead by Deepak Mishra, Ph.D. and published in Remote Sensing of Environment (vol. 118) is the first look at short-term impacts the oil spill had on …

Louisiana Coastal Master Plan public meetings start today

By David Muth, National Wildlife Federation Louisiana’s Draft 2012 Coastal Master Plan, released Jan. 12, is the most ambitious ecosystem restoration plan proposed in United States history and is the first to lay out a comprehensive vision for how a coastal state will cope with land loss, subsidence, and projected sea-level rise over the next half century. With an expenditure of $1 billion per year over 50 years, split equally between protection and restoration, Louisiana could build or prevent the loss of …

New study examines oil and gas production’s increased effects on Louisiana coastal land loss

By Alisha A. Renfro, Ph.D., National Wildlife Federation The Mississippi River Delta is experiencing the highest relative sea-level rise in the U.S. due to the combination of global sea-level rise and local subsidence (sinking land). High subsidence is typical of river deltas where rapid sediment accumulation also traps a great deal of water. Over time, as layers of new sediment are deposited, water is squeezed out of the underlying deposits, causing compaction and the land surface to sink. Subsidence rates …

Can a 1926 spillway hold the key to restoring Louisiana’s coast?

By John A. Lopez Ph.D., Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation The Bohemia Spillway area—a 12-mile reach on the east bank of the Mississippi River approximately 45 miles downriver of New Orleans—is a focus of research by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF).  The spillway has a fascinating history.  In the 1920s, New Orleans residents had great fear of flooding from the Mississippi River, so the state authorized removal of artificial river levees to create a relief outlet for floodwater.  In 1926, the …