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Louisiana’s Wetlands Are Being Lost At The Rate Of One Football Field Every 38 Minutes
Science Daily ^ | 1-4-2008 | Louisiana State University.

Posted on 01/04/2008 1:28:00 PM PST by blam

Louisiana’s Wetlands Are Being Lost At The Rate Of One Football Field Every 38 Minutes

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2008) — LSU and Ohio State University will battle for the BCS National College Football Championship in the Superdome early next week, but if the game was held in the Louisiana wetlands instead, the entire field would disappear before halftime.

Louisiana’s wetlands are being lost at the rate of approximately one football field every 38 minutes. To fight against this rapid destruction, the two universities joined forces in 2003, forming an ongoing research partnership with the goal of rebuilding the vanishing coastal wetland ecosystem that makes up 30 percent of the nation’s total coastal marsh.

Researchers also aim to reduce the flow of nitrogen and other chemicals that pour into the Mississippi River each spring from America’s heartland. This causes an overabundance of nutrients that rob the water of oxygen, creating a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico – more than 975 square miles of low-oxygen water that limits the sustainable fisheries of the region.

“This is a multi-billion-dollar problem that affects our entire nation,” said LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe. “While we battle on the football field, we collaborate in the research field to tackle the issue of coastal wetlands loss.”

Louisiana’s wetlands help to make the state the nation’s leader in crude oil production and second in natural gas production, according to America’s Wetland Foundation. These fragile ecosystems also support 25 percent of the nation’s total commercial fishing haul and provide storm protection to five of the country’s largest ports. Wetlands are essential because of their capability to filter the nutrients that would contribute to the dead zone before they get carried into the Gulf; they’re also vital for hurricane protection in storm-sensitive areas like New Orleans.

“Louisiana has both the largest amount of wetland loss and the largest dead zone in the country,” said Robert Twilley, associate vice chancellor of research and economic development at LSU, director of the Coastal Systems and Society Agenda, professor of coastal sciences and leader of the Shell Coastal Environmental Modeling Laboratory, or CEML. “We’re working hard to rebuild our wetlands and reduce nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico, but we can’t do it alone.”

That’s where OSU comes in.

While LSU scientists focus on Louisiana, addressing the issues of dramatic wetland loss and the continuously growing dead zone, OSU researchers are developing wetlands upstream so that nutrient loads in the Mississippi that would increase the size of the dead zone will be dramatically reduced by the time they reach the delta region.

Adapted from materials provided by Louisiana State University.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: disappear; lost; louisiana; swamps; wetlands
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1 posted on 01/04/2008 1:28:04 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

But are they gaining football fields?


2 posted on 01/04/2008 1:30:40 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (It takes a father to raise a child.)
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To: blam

In don’t see the problem.

Isn’t this mother nature at work?

Why should man stop the course of a natural process?


3 posted on 01/04/2008 1:31:26 PM PST by George from New England
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To: blam

Maybe it’s time to punt?


4 posted on 01/04/2008 1:32:52 PM PST by lexington minuteman 1775
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To: blam

Good bet that Louisiana was FORMED one football field at a time.


5 posted on 01/04/2008 1:33:06 PM PST by i_dont_chat (Your choice if you take offense.)
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To: blam

If we’re losing all these football fields, aren’t we going to run out of them before the Super Bowl gets here?

Huh?

Anyone?


6 posted on 01/04/2008 1:34:07 PM PST by Constitution Day (Get over yourselves!)
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To: All

Less damage from hurricanes in the future, esp wetlands near the coast.

Now, they probably could work out some deals with those football fields...


7 posted on 01/04/2008 1:35:24 PM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (Illegal Aliens are not "undocumented immigrants"....Are murderers "population control specialists"?)
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To: blam

So they need a few extra billion dollars to study this or something?


8 posted on 01/04/2008 1:35:57 PM PST by driftdiver
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To: George from New England

The modifications to the Mississippi river by the Corps of Engineers, the canals, etc. are largely the cause of the land loss.


9 posted on 01/04/2008 1:36:56 PM PST by Strategerist
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To: blam

Geez.

“Wetlands” = SWAMP.

So, they are losing SWAMPLAND quickly - perhaps drying out and becoming (human) useful land?

I can see why the enviros would hate this.


10 posted on 01/04/2008 1:38:18 PM PST by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: George from New England

“Isn’t this mother nature at work? Why should man stop the course of a natural process?”

It is NOT the natural process. The man-made levees prevent sediment that would otherwise be deposited from the natural flow of the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, hence building up the land in our coastal region.


11 posted on 01/04/2008 1:38:22 PM PST by Boanarges
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To: blam
Louisiana’s Wetlands Are Being Lost At The Rate Of One Football Field Every 38 Minutes

Is this including downtown New Orleans and those 'burbs swamped by Katrina???

12 posted on 01/04/2008 1:38:42 PM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: blam
Stasis in saecula saeculorum!

The motto of the modern environmental movement.
13 posted on 01/04/2008 1:39:33 PM PST by Antoninus (If you want the national GOP to look more like the Massachusetts GOP, vote for Flip Romney)
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To: blam
wetlands being lost...

I found some here:

They aren't going to run out anytime soon.

14 posted on 01/04/2008 1:41:18 PM PST by Gil4 ("There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism" - Teddy Roosevelt)
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To: blam

I highly doubt it. If it were so, LA would be dry by now.........


15 posted on 01/04/2008 1:44:26 PM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
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To: Jeff Chandler

sounds like a good place to build a refinery,cause I LOVE BIG OIL


16 posted on 01/04/2008 1:45:21 PM PST by jd792
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To: blam

Where are they going?


17 posted on 01/04/2008 1:45:35 PM PST by norwaypinesavage (Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is like drinking water to offset rising ocean levels)
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To: blam

Since when is draining a swamp a bad thing? wetland=swamp


18 posted on 01/04/2008 1:47:13 PM PST by LetsRok
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To: Red Badger

A football field would have to go under water in order to disappear. This means there will actually be more football fields. Good, bring back the USFL!


19 posted on 01/04/2008 1:47:37 PM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: blam
Huh, so this article is basically saying that Louisiana STILL EXISTS, however.

I thought Bush, Cheney, and Katrina took care of that state back in '05.

20 posted on 01/04/2008 1:50:38 PM PST by Sam's Army
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