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Wetlands benefit from hurricanes
22/Sep/2006: A new study carried out by a group of ecologists; claim that hurricanes Katrina and Rita helped in stabilizing coastal wetlands by depositing tons of silt and sediments, contradicting many long-held theories, which state that rivers are the primary source of sediments that forms the wetlands.
R.Eugene Turner, the research leader of this study and an ecologist at Louisiana State University, said that the findings of this study also counter the belief that the loss of wetlands along the eastern Louisiana coastline is the result of building flood prevention levees on the Mississippi river.
Wetlands along the coast act as natural barriers to hurricanes and storm surges. Sediments form a small portion of the wetlands but they play an important role by being a part of the physical framework that supports the wetland vegetation. Wetlands serve as a breeding ground for many marine mammals. The findings of this study could stir a lot of discussions among the environmentalists on formation of wetlands. However, researchers from the Louisiana State University, who carried out this study, have concluded that hurricanes play an important role in the well-being of wetlands. The findings of the study appear in the online edition of the journal ‘Science’ and this research was funded by a $25,000 grant from the ‘National Science Foundation’.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which produced huge storm surges, deposited tons of sand, silt and clay along the coastlines they hit. In Louisiana wetlands, the hurricanes dumped 1 to 6 inches of sediments weighing over 144 million tons. Earlier, engineers used to divert the flow of the Mississippi river through the coastal wetlands to enhance the deposition of sediments. But Katrina and Rita dumped 227 times more sediment than the river diversions deposit in a year.
Kesavan Siva
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