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A Palynostratigraphic Investigation Of Holocene Coastal Texas Bays: Implications For Future Coastal Change, Shannon Marie Ferguson
A Palynostratigraphic Investigation Of Holocene Coastal Texas Bays: Implications For Future Coastal Change, Shannon Marie Ferguson
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Although the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most studied basins in the world, a majority of the focus has been driven by petroleum exploration and/or on seismic and sedimentological facies models. Rarely has the intent of previous studies been to characterize the Holocene climatic record of coastal Texas. Of those studies that discuss Holocene vegetation change, the majority focus on the Mississippi River Delta, the Edwards Plateau or central Florida, leaving an absence of insight to western Gulf of Mexico climate changes. The Texas coastline stretches 595 km across almost 4° of latitude and the strong northwestern precipitation …
Holocene Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction From Mexico's Pacific Coast-A Paleotempestological Investigation, Thomas Bianchette
Holocene Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction From Mexico's Pacific Coast-A Paleotempestological Investigation, Thomas Bianchette
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation examines the paleoenvironments of four lagoons from Mexico’s Pacific coast, with the aim of retrieving sediment deposition from storm surge events to determine long-term tropical cyclone (TC) records. Lagoons Agua Dulce, Boquita, Mitla, and Nuxco are located along a 700 km stretch in states Jalisco and Guerrero. Roughly 70 meters of sediment were collected and subjected to multiple proxies, including loss-on ignition, a microfossil survey, and geochemical analysis. Nuxco’s dynamism is caused by intense and prolonged rainfall (largely from TCs), responsible for increasing water level, opening the tidal inlet, and draining the site (termed “blowouts”). High amounts of …
Spatial Structure And Dynamics Of The Plant Communities In A Pro-Grading River Delta : Wax Lake Delta, Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana, Melissa Carle
Spatial Structure And Dynamics Of The Plant Communities In A Pro-Grading River Delta : Wax Lake Delta, Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana, Melissa Carle
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
River deltas are dynamic depositional environments that are controlled to varying degrees by coastal and fluvial forces. Plant communities in deltas respond to many of the same allogenic forces that shape delta geomorphology. This study examines the factors that influence plant community development, productivity, and species distributions in the Wax Lake delta, a young, actively pro-grading river delta in coastal Louisiana, USA. A species distribution map created using high-resolution 8-band WorldView-2 imagery was found to have an overall accuracy of 75 percent. Classification tree analysis suggested that most of the observed variation in plant species distributions within the delta can …
Edaphic And Vegetative Controls On Mercury Cycling In Oligohaline Wetlands, Jonathan M. Willis
Edaphic And Vegetative Controls On Mercury Cycling In Oligohaline Wetlands, Jonathan M. Willis
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
With the expansion of the human population and associated industries there is a concomitant increase in both resource utilization and the production of waste and deleterious by-products. Mercury is a naturally-occurring toxic metal with a complicated and unique biogeochemical cycle, and is often a contaminant of ecotoxicological concern in unindustrialized aquatic habitats. The research described herein was designed to elucidate multiple aspects regarding the behavior of mercury in oligohaline wetland habitats, particularly with respect to edaphic and vegetative effects, through a monitoring and characterization study as well as a series of manipulative experiments. The observational study, conducted in the wetlands …
Developing Tools To Identify Factors That Limit Production In Coastal Marshes, Vanessa Danielle Tobias
Developing Tools To Identify Factors That Limit Production In Coastal Marshes, Vanessa Danielle Tobias
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Marsh loss is a problem in many areas around the world. In Louisiana’s coastal marshes, where Spartina patens is the most common plant, restoration and management seek to slow wetland loss rates that average approximately 77.4 km2/year. To combat the problem, scientists and managers require tools to determine local causes and evaluate the effectiveness of management techniques. Current methods for identifying factors that limit productivity in marshes are too time-consuming or expensive for wide-spread, regular use. Critical values of elemental concentrations in plant tissue are widely used to diagnose mineral deficiencies and toxicities in agricultural crops, however. I used the …