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Full-Text Articles in Fresh Water Studies

Phosphorus Variability In The Area Of Influence Of The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, Peter Mates Jul 2020

Phosphorus Variability In The Area Of Influence Of The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, Peter Mates

LSU Master's Theses

Man-made levees along the lower Mississippi River prevent delivery of sediment from building and maintaining Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. The Mid-Barataria sediment diversions is designed to reintroduce Mississippi River water, sediment, and nutrients into the sediment-starved Barataria Basin. Phosphorus (P) is an important macronutrient for regulating primary production in coastal marine ecosystems. Wetlands can serve as a sink or source for phosphorus to the overlying water column through various retention and release processes, dependent on concentration. Louisiana coastal systems can be phosphorus limited due to much higher concentrations of bioavailable Nitrogen in river water. The high soluble molar N:P ( >50:1) …


Identification And Quantification Of Microplastic Pollution In Water Samples And Four Species Of Fish From The Mississippi River, Kerrin E. Toner Jul 2020

Identification And Quantification Of Microplastic Pollution In Water Samples And Four Species Of Fish From The Mississippi River, Kerrin E. Toner

LSU Master's Theses

Microplastics (£5 mm) have become a persistent anthropogenic pollutant and a growing environmental concern with evidence of them being found throughout several ecosystems. In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that rivers play a major role in transporting plastics from the land to the sea. The Mississippi River is the largest river in North America, draining land populated by over 100 million people. With high numbers of microplastics found in the waters of the northern of the Gulf of Mexico, it is likely that the Mississippi River is the primary source of these plastics. This study quantifies and …


Seasonal Transport Of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon And Total Alkalinity Across The Louisiana Shelf, Michelle M. Anderson Jun 2020

Seasonal Transport Of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon And Total Alkalinity Across The Louisiana Shelf, Michelle M. Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

Rivers and wetlands are a major source of terrestrial derived carbon for coastal ocean margins. Unfortunately, Louisiana’s wetlands are threatened by ongoing high rates of erosion, deterioration, and unprecedented rates of river water discharge that changes seasonally, leading to a net loss of terrestrial carbon into the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM). There exists a current lack of understanding about the distribution of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TAlk) within the shallowest regions of the Louisiana shelf. Even less is known about how the transport of DIC alters seasonally with changes in river outflow and shelf currents. Quantifying …


Environmental Controls On Dissolved Carbon Export And River Geochemistry - A Case Study In The Mississippi-Atchafalaya System, Jeremy Reiman Mar 2019

Environmental Controls On Dissolved Carbon Export And River Geochemistry - A Case Study In The Mississippi-Atchafalaya System, Jeremy Reiman

LSU Master's Theses

Rivers serve as an important medium for the exchange of elements between land, ocean, and atmosphere. This thesis consists of three interconnected studies with the overarching goal of analyzing the environmental factors influencing dissolved carbon dynamics and river geochemistry in large rivers. These studies utilized river water samples and in-stream measurements collected from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers at hourly to monthly intervals between 2013 to 2018, along with ambient river and meteorological data downloaded from public-access databases. Results indicate substantially higher dissolved organic carbon concentrations (DOC, 611 ±181 µmol L-1) but lower concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon …