COASTAL ECOLOGY INSTITUTE

WATERSHED DYNAMICS RESEARCH PROGRAM

Watersheds funnel runoff from upland areas to the downstream coastal zone. Nutrients, dissolved organic matter, and water itself are all vital ingredients that watersheds feed to coastal systems. In some sense, midwestern towns are also coastal towns, because farm practices in the midwest deliver nutrients to the Louisiana coastal zone through the Mississippi River system.

There is increasing emphasis on linked upstream-coastal studies within the context of studying watershed dynamics. CEI scientists study how upstream land use practices can be modified to ensure downstream, sustainable coastal resources and fisheries, both for local Louisiana watersheds and watersheds in other countries.

Top : Jaye Cable and Jenneke Visser exploring Barataria Basin, Louisiana. Photograph by Lorna Inniss.

Bottom : Brian Fry sampling in South Slough, Oregon, with Steve Sadro and Steve Rumrill.
Photograph by Jim McClelland.