SGER -- Hurricanes Gustav & Ike: Relative Sustainability of Saline Wetlands in the Mississippi River Delta Complex

飓风是塑造海岸湿地地貌并通过物理、化学和生物过程影响湿地生态的重要力量。此外，海平面上升和地面沉降是影响沿海地区的长期过程，例如密西西比河三角洲综合体（MRDC），它包含了全国40%的湿地。潮间带植物，如红树林和盐沼草，在促进沉积物和有机物的积累，从而在海平面上升时建立土壤资源和保持湿地高度方面具有重要作用。物种的变化可能会使湿地更容易受到海平面上升的影响，这取决于物种建造沼泽高地的能力。该项目将利用最近的飓风事件，即2008年9月在路易斯安那州富尔川港附近登陆的古斯塔夫和艾克飓风，比较红树林和盐沼生态系统捕获沉积物的能力，为沉积物输送创造障碍，刺激有机质对土壤的贡献，并提高沿海地区的海拔。如果海平面上升、飓风强度和频率如预测的那样随着全球气候变化而增加，这些信息就会变得越来越重要。了解飓风如何与控制沿海海拔的过程相互作用，对于制定合理的计划来保存和保护这些生态系统及其提供的服务至关重要。湄公河流域沿海湿地的可持续性至关重要，不仅因为它是一种自然资源和海产品生产，还因为它在保护新奥尔良港和富尔川港方面发挥了关键作用，美国近30%的能源资源和外国进口都要通过这两个港口。

Hurricanes are important forces that sculpt landforms within coastal wetlands and influence their ecology through effects on physical, chemical, and biological processes. In addition, sea-level rise and land subsidence are long-term processes that affect coastal areas, as in the Mississippi River Delta Complex (MRDC), which contains 40% of the Nation's wetlands. Intertidal plants, like mangroves and salt marsh grasses, are important in promoting accumulation of sediments and organic matter, thereby building the soil resource and maintaining wetland elevation as sea level rises. Species shifts may make wetlands more vulnerable to sea-level rise, depending on the species' capacities to build marsh elevation. This project will take advantage of recent hurricane events, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike that made landfall in September 2008 near Port Fourchon, Louisiana to compare the capacity of mangrove and salt marsh ecosystems to capture sediment, create a barrier to sediment delivery, stimulate organic matter contributions to soil, and increase elevation in coastal areas. This information becomes increasingly important if sea-level rise and hurricane intensity and frequency increase with global climate change as predicted. Understanding how hurricanes interact with processes controlling coastal elevations is essential to developing sound plans to conserve and protect these ecosystems and the services they provide. The sustainability of coastal wetlands in the MRDC is critical not only as a natural resource and for seafood production, but also for their key role in protecting the ports of New Orleans and Port Fourchon, through which nearly 30% of the nation's energy resources and foreign imports pass.