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Louisiana bayou slow to recover from Gulf oil spill
Published 03 July, 2012 08:00:00 Living on Earth
Many ecosystems along the Gulf coast have been slow to recover from the BP oil spill in 2010. But few have struggled as much as Louisiana's coastal wetlands, where the annual erosion rate doubled from five to 10 feet over an 18-month period.
The Louisiana bayou is still struggling to recover from the 2010 oil spill that caused its coastal wetlands to erode at historic rates.
Louisiana's delicate marshes were rapidly disappearing before BP's Deepwater Horizon dumped five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But now, two years after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the erosion of the bayou has accelerated at an alarming pace.
"These salt marshes, in many ways, are the lifeblood of the coastal communities there in Louisiana," said Ben Silliman, a marine biologist at the University Florida who studies them.
Known as America's hardest working wetlands, the bayou is home to valuable fisheries that support local economies. It also acts as a sponge to absorb important nutrients that protect the open waters from potential harmful algal blooms.
And in the case of storms, the marshes can protect the shoreline from incoming waves by acting as a bit of a natural seawall. They help control flooding by absorbing water as the sea level rises during storms.
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Read more + audio:
http://www.pri.org/stories/science/environment/louisiana-bayou-slow-to-recover-from-gulf-oil-spill-10502.html
Published 03 July, 2012 08:00:00 Living on Earth
Many ecosystems along the Gulf coast have been slow to recover from the BP oil spill in 2010. But few have struggled as much as Louisiana's coastal wetlands, where the annual erosion rate doubled from five to 10 feet over an 18-month period.
The Louisiana bayou is still struggling to recover from the 2010 oil spill that caused its coastal wetlands to erode at historic rates.
Louisiana's delicate marshes were rapidly disappearing before BP's Deepwater Horizon dumped five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. But now, two years after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the erosion of the bayou has accelerated at an alarming pace.
"These salt marshes, in many ways, are the lifeblood of the coastal communities there in Louisiana," said Ben Silliman, a marine biologist at the University Florida who studies them.
Known as America's hardest working wetlands, the bayou is home to valuable fisheries that support local economies. It also acts as a sponge to absorb important nutrients that protect the open waters from potential harmful algal blooms.
And in the case of storms, the marshes can protect the shoreline from incoming waves by acting as a bit of a natural seawall. They help control flooding by absorbing water as the sea level rises during storms.
...
Read more + audio:
http://www.pri.org/stories/science/environment/louisiana-bayou-slow-to-recover-from-gulf-oil-spill-10502.html