海角社区 Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Bivins, Team Researching Faster Wetland Restoration Methods
October 30, 2024
BATON ROUGE, LA 鈥 It鈥檚 not news that Louisiana wetlands are disappearing at an astounding rate鈥攏early 30 square miles annually, per the U.S. Geological Survey. With every acre lost of the three million acres that make up the state鈥檚 wetland ecosystem, also lost are species and habitats that are unique to the state and provide protection from hurricanes and flooding.
Thanks to a Phase 1 $25,000 海角社区 Big Idea Research Grant from the Provost鈥檚 Fund, 海角社区 Civil and Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Aaron Bivins is leading a team that includes 海角社区 Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Associate Professors Matthew Hiatt, Giulio Mariotti, and Tracy Quirk in coming up with efficient and faster ways of growing vegetation and bringing in sediment to keep wetlands in place using microorganisms.
鈥淭he Mississippi River is one of the most engineered rivers in the world,鈥 Bivins said. 鈥淚n order to provide flood protection, we鈥檝e built all of these levees, which is great for not flooding our cities. But the downside of that is all the sediment that used to come down the river during flood events would be deposited in the delta, and that鈥檚 what built the land over time. The river delta is fed by all that sediment that comes downstream. Now that we鈥檝e built all the levees, we鈥檝e disconnected the river delta from its sediment source, the river itself.鈥
Bivins says land-building projects involve getting the sediment back into the deltas.
鈥淭here are diversions, which are large-scale, and then you have wetland creation or restoration on an individual case-by-case basis,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 currently being done is putting the fill material in, bringing the sediment in, and letting nature run its course. All of these natural processes that have sustained the delta for years are great, but they鈥檙e a bit slow. It takes time.鈥
Bivins says there鈥檚 a natural succession of ecosystems that includes microorganisms, sediment/soil, plants, and water where vegetation ultimately grows and helps hold the sediment in place, with the sediment eventually becoming soil with organic content, which creates new land.
鈥淭he idea in our proposal is taking a look at these natural processes and identifying some ways to engineer the microbial aspects to be faster and more efficient,鈥 he said.
What鈥檚 unique about the Mississippi River delta, according to Bivins, is that it has moved over time, creating a gradient of smaller deltas within the larger delta and all of the deltas are in different life stages. This gives his team the ability to take measurements along the smaller deltas and look at the changes over time that are occurring in the microbes and soil.
鈥淲e want to see if we can identify some of these deltas strategically, then set up instrumentation and experimental stations to look at this land formation over longer durations,鈥 Bivins said. 鈥淏ased upon what we observe, we want to find ways to accelerate or amplify those natural microbial processes. It鈥檚 land, which we desperately need.鈥
Bivins鈥 hope is that his team will be able to garner more funding for this research, with the ultimate goal being that within a decade, there will be a wetlands observatory at 海角社区 that will change how deltas are managed throughout the world.
Hear more about the project from Bivins by .
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