Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Dynamics Of Land Building And Ecological Succession In A Prograding Deltaic Floodplain, Wax Lake Delta, La, Usa, Azure Elizabeth Bevington

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Deltas are globally important locations of diverse ecosystems, human settlement and economic activity that are threatened by reduced sediment delivery, accelerated sea level rise, and subsidence. In this dissertation I investigated a number of aspects of the ecosystem development over time within an actively prograding river dominated delta along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. I outlined a conceptual model of deltaic floodplain wetland establishment and succession focused on the vegetated deltaic floodplain ecosystem, which includes subtidal, intertidal and supratidal zones. This was used to guide the experimental design and statistically driven hypothesis testing in order to ascertain the validity …