Rising seas have already pushed Louisiana's marshes beyond a tipping point, inevitably dooming this rich habitat for fish, waterfowl and other creatures and leaving New Orleans ever more vulnerable to storms.
That’s the sobering conclusion of a new study in which researchers gleaned clues from hundreds of cores of sediments drilled from across the sprawling Mississippi Delta. According to their analysis, those clues show that when past sustained sea level rise was as rapid as it is today, the marshes of the delta inevitably disappeared.
“This is a major threat not only to one of the ecologically richest environments of the United States but also for the 1.2 million inhabitants and associated economic assets that are surrounded by Mississippi Delta marshland,” the study authors conclude.
And it’s not just the Mississippi Delta that’s vulnerable. “Our findings, viewed within the context of long-term sea level projections, raise the question whether coastal marshes elsewhere may be more vulnerable than commonly recognized,” the researchers caution.
