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Burn Scar Mapping In The Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Using Landsat Tm And Etm+ Imagery, Chris Pennington Jan 2006

Burn Scar Mapping In The Sabine National Wildlife Refuge Using Landsat Tm And Etm+ Imagery, Chris Pennington

LSU Master's Theses

Marsh fires burn on a regular basis on the Southwestern Louisiana Coast from both natural and anthropogenic ignitions. Remote sensing based studies of these fires are scarce. Several burn scar mapping techniques have been developed and implemented for study of forest fires in the American West but have not been applied to marsh fires. Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS Software was used to process Landsat imagery of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge in accordance with the most commonly used burn scar mapping spectral indices and tested for accuracy against manually digitized burn scar maps. Indices tested included the Normalize Burn Ratio …


Breeding Waterbird Use Of Rice Fields In Southwestern Louisiana, Sergio Pierluissi Jan 2006

Breeding Waterbird Use Of Rice Fields In Southwestern Louisiana, Sergio Pierluissi

LSU Master's Theses

Rice fields are agricultural wetlands concentrated in several areas in the U.S., including southwestern Louisiana. Rice fields are flooded for much of the year and support thick emergent vegetation, potentially providing high-quality habitat for several species of breeding waterbirds. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine relative nest density, nest success, and habitat associations of breeding waterbirds in southwestern Louisiana rice fields and (2) determine the effectiveness of callback surveys as a monitoring tool. In the summers of 2004 and 2005, marsh bird surveys and nest searches were conducted in Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Vermilion, and Acadia Parishes in …


From The Top Down And The Bottom Up: The Contemporary Practice And Choice Of Midwifery In Louisiana, Michelle M. Wydra Jan 2006

From The Top Down And The Bottom Up: The Contemporary Practice And Choice Of Midwifery In Louisiana, Michelle M. Wydra

LSU Master's Theses

This research examines the contemporary practice of midwifery in Louisiana, a state that very early on had progressive legislation, yet remains a tough place for a midwife to practice. What, then, are the social forces that affect the ability to practice midwifery in Louisiana? I try to answer that question by examining the narratives of midwives and their clients, and evaluating the options these women have access to in this state. The narratives provide opportunities to observe the authoritarian knowledge of biomedicine in our society, and apply Foucault’s theory of power/knowledge. I describe that although Louisiana’s regulation of the practice …


Coastal Marsh Restoration Using Terraces: Effects On Waterbird Habitat In Louisiana's Chenier Plain, Jessica L. O'Connell Jan 2006

Coastal Marsh Restoration Using Terraces: Effects On Waterbird Habitat In Louisiana's Chenier Plain, Jessica L. O'Connell

LSU Master's Theses

Terracing is a novel technique used to combat coastal marsh loss in Louisiana and Texas. Terraces are assumed to slow marsh erosion, decrease pond depth, and encourage vegetation expansion. Terraced ponds have never been evaluated as habitat for waterbirds, which heavily depend on Louisiana�s coastal marshes. From April 2005 to April 2006, I monitored waterbird species richness and density through time to estimate effects that terracing has on habitat quality. Water quality (turbidity, salinity, conductivity, water temperature, and water depth) also was measured. Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) biomass and nekton density were measured from April 2005 to September 2005. I …