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A Dire Future for Coastal Wetlands
A new study, "Coastal Wetland Resilience, Accelerated Sea-Level Rise, and the Importance of Timescale," addresses conflicting results of recent studies as to whether coastal wetlands can keep up with current and future sea-level rise. The research suggests that wetland extent will shrink considerably under high rates of sea-level rise. The report is co-authored by John Day of the LSU College of the Coast & Environment, Torbjörn Törnqvist of Tulane University, Donald R. Cahoon of US Geological Survey, and James Morris of the University of South Carolina.
Undocumented Flounder Population Decline Discovered
Louisiana Sea Grant-funded research has identified a previously undocumented southern flounder population decline that spans the entire species’ range. Southern flounder are an important recreational and commercial coastal flatfish species common to South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico states. However, lead researcher Steve Midway, an assistant professor in the LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, discovered there were few flounder to be found.
Blight May Increase Public Health Risk from Mosquito-borne Diseases
LSU researchers recently published findings that the presence of blight is leading to an increased abundance of disease carrying mosquitoes in low-income Baton Rouge neighborhoods. Rebeca De Jesus Crespo is the lead author and an assistant professor in LSU’s College of the Coast & Environment.
Coast & Environment Assistant Dean Earns LSU Staff Stripes Award
On February 26, Leah Courville, assistant dean of the LSU College of the Coast & Environment, received a Staff Stripes Award from LSU Staff Senate. This award recognizes staff for their exceptional work and dedication to LSU. Courville has worked for LSU for 25 years, spending the past 11 years at the College of the Coast & Environment.
LSU CC&E Professor Named Everyday Hero by Keep Louisiana Beautiful
On February 9, LSU College of the Coast & Environment Professor Mark Benfield was named one of eight 2020 Everyday Heroes by Keep Louisiana Beautiful, or KLB. Benfield was honored with the Golden Can Award, which recognizes a public servant who displays a deep commitment to KLB’s mission in their daily work by going above and beyond the call of duty.
Transcending Boundaries in Louisiana Watershed Management
Scientists in LSU’s College of the Coast & Environment are analyzing Louisiana’s patchwork of regulations to get a big picture view of how they are influencing current conditions in the coastal watershed. This research is part of the Louisiana Watershed Initiative, or LWI, and will assess how to improve deficiencies in Louisiana’s approach to floodplain management and community planning across all levels of government.
LSU Coast & Environment Dean Leads DEI Collaboration with Gulf States
More than 50 participants from the Gulf States met virtually on January 28, 2021 as part of the Gulf of Mexico University Research Collaborative's, or GOMURC's, diversity, equity, and inclusion workshop. This DEI workshop was facilitated by GOMURC Chair Chris D'Elia, who is a professor and dean of the LSU College of the Coast & Environment. Its purpose was to exchange ideas regarding the development of a strategy to enhance the diversity of doctoral graduates in the physical and environmental sciences.
CC&E Celebrates International Day of Women and Girls in Science
The United Nations has declared February 11 the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. On this special occasion, we take time to reflect and celebrate the accomplishments of the women students, faculty, and staff of LSU’s College of the Coast & Environment, or CC&E.
Cleaning Up the Mississippi River
LSU College of the Coast & Environment Boyd Professor R. Eugene Turner reconstructed a 100-year record chronicling water quality trends in the lower Mississippi River by compiling water quality data collected from 1901 to 2019 by federal and state agencies as well as the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board. The Mississippi River is the largest river in North America with about 30 million people living within its watershed. Turner focused on data that tracked the water’s acidity through pH levels and concentrations of bacteria, oxygen, lead and sulphate in this study published in Ambio, a journal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Restoring Wetlands around Sacred Sites
Louisiana’s coastal wetland loss problem affects the entire state, but it disproportionately impacts indigenous coastal tribes who stand to lose sacred burial sites and other culturally significant places. A collaboration between the Lowlander Center, a nonprofit advocacy and education organization dedicated to supporting lowland people and places, and LSU's College of the Coast & Environment aims to stop and potentially reverse part of the coastal wetland loss problem with support from the National Estuary Program.
Leading the Way on World Wetlands Day
Each year, World Wetlands Day is celebrated internationally on February 2 to raise awareness of the significance of wetlands in our global environment. Located right along the banks of the Mississippi, it makes sense that LSU’s College of the Coast & Environment, or CC&E, would house the largest group of wetlands experts under one roof in Louisiana. In fact, more than a fourth of CC&E’s faculty have a primary focus on wetlands research, and four of the top 10 published wetlands scientists in the U.S. work at CC&E, according to Web of Science. Their work leads to a better understanding of the complex causes of wetlands loss, potential methods for restoration, and ways to better manage these systems.
WATCH: From the Lab of Brian Snyder, PhD: Modelling Energy Use in Human Populations
In this video, Dr. Brian Snyder, assistant professor in the LSU Department of Environmental Sciences, discusses how we study energy as the underlying cause to a lot of the problems our society faces. He also demonstrates energy consumption and movement by idealized societies in modelling software Net Logo.
Putting the Carbon Genie to Work
Recognized as the main driver behind global warming and climate change, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere sets new records each year. The effects are clear in Louisiana and in coastal communities around the world, where higher temperatures and sea level rise lead to stronger storms, more frequent flooding, and other costly and sometimes life-threatening problems. LSU researchers in several colleges are now merging science, technology, engineering, law, and environmental and coastal sciences to help find solutions to what Assistant Professor Brian Snyder in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment calls “the defining problem of the 21st Century”—curbing CO2 emissions while also actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere through new, innovative technologies and by setting a price on carbon, the most basic building block for all life on Earth—at the center of today’s energy politics.
WATCH: What To Do With CO2?
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere sets new records each year. Today, it’s the highest it’s ever been since there were people on the planet. Here's how LSU and the College of the Coast & Environment are helping to solve the "defining problem of the 21st century."
U.S. Army Taps into LSU Coastal and Engineering Expertise to Augment Resilience
BATON ROUGE – The U.S. Army has turned to LSU experts to help make military operations better prepared and more resilient to climate-induced hazards with more than $9.3 million in funding over the next four years. Military operations, personnel and infrastructure including buildings, bridges, roads and flood protection structures can be impacted significantly by flooding from intense precipitation events, subsidence and rising seas. Anticipating Threats to Natural Systems, or ACTIONS, is a collaboration among the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Environmental Laboratory, or ERDC-EL, LSU and the University of Delaware.
National Academy of Inventors Selects LSU Coast & Environment Professor Emeritus as 2020 Fellow
Ralph Portier, professor emeritus of the LSU College of the Coast & Environment is one of two LSU professors who have been named 2020 National Academy of Inventors Fellows, or NAI. Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors, and Portier is one of only eight LSU professors to receive it in the history of the program. Portier was selected for demonstrating "a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society."
Tiger Profile: Mark Benfield
As the number of COVID-19 positive cases grew in the state of Louisiana, so did the calls for citizens to wear masks. At the same time, LSU CC&E Professor Mark Benfield noticed new pollution in his neighborhood -- used personal protective equipment, what he is calling “waste PPE.” This sparked the idea for a global research project to track the PPE littering neighborhoods.
Congratulations to CC&E’s Class of 2020
This year, we would like to recognize the incredible accomplishments of the entire class of 2020. Our graduates have worked hard to reach ambitious new heights. Whether our 2020 graduates have been with us for two years, six, or more, so much has happened. For many, their time at LSU has been bookended with “once in a lifetime” events– the great flood of 2016 and this year’s pandemic. But throughout and in-between, we hope that they made many fond memories.
CC&E Student Served On Biden-Harris Campaign's Climate Committee
Upcoming LSU graduate Jack Green’s last semester at LSU focused on his classes and a presidential campaign, as member of the Biden-Harris campaign’s Climate, Energy and Environment committee.
CC&E's Research & Academic Highlights: A Year in Review
As 2020 comes to an end, the LSU College of the Coast & Environment, or CC&E, would like to reflect on our research and academic accomplishments for the year, particularly our significant increase in research grants, new academic offerings, and faculty awards. Here are just a few examples of all that we have achieved this year.
Two CC&E Students Awarded at SWAAG
The LSU College of the Coast & Environment inspires innovative thinking, enables students to make new discoveries, and encourages them to present their world-class research at prestigious conferences. At this year's virtual meeting of the Southwest Division of the American Association of Geographers, or SWAAG, two of the college's graduate students won awards for their research. Rubayet Bin Mostafiz won first place in the graduate student poster competition and Nazla Bushra won second place in the graduate student paper competition.
LSU Partnerships Improve Hurricane Storm Surge Forecasts for Louisiana, Nation
During the record-breaking 2020 hurricane season, more people than ever turned to LSU’s Coastal Emergency Risk Assessment (CERA) tool, which visualizes ADCIRC storm surge predictions, to help protect people and assets against flooding. Although the official season finally ended this week, the researchers are busier than ever in improving the tool and preparing for next year—by working directly with the decision makers who rely on it. To this end, the LSU team has continued to grow and now includes Denise DeLorme, professor of environmental communication, and Paul Miller, assistant professor of coastal meteorology, both in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment.
Coastal Environmental Science Student Kendall Brome Receives LSU Distinguished Communicator Medal
During December 2020 Commencement, 17 graduates across seven colleges will receive the LSU Distinguished Communicator Medal. Recipients of this honor are outstanding writers and speakers, with a strong command of visual literacy and technological communication. They have earned high GPAs in their communication-intensive courses throughout their baccalaureate years, sought 1-1 mentorships with faculty and have built websites that display their communication competencies and professional talents, both in and beyond the classroom. LSU Distinguished Communicators also graduate with the LSU Communicator Certificate, launched in Fall 2018.
After Historic 2020 Hurricane Season, LSU’s Coastal Research Highlights Post-Storm Impacts
BATON ROUGE—The year 2020 now has the most named storms ever recorded in the Atlantic in a single year. In the summer and fall, the coastal bays of Louisiana have experienced impacts from a number of tropical storms and hurricanes in close procession, including Tropical Storm Marco and Hurricanes Laura, Sally, Beta, Delta and Zeta. These events have provided LSU scientists with a rare opportunity to assess how storms can exacerbate coastal erosion even when they do not directly strike vulnerable areas. This is especially concerning for Barataria Bay, Louisiana, which has one of the fastest coastal land loss rates in the nation. While studying marsh edge erosion in the bay, the scientists discovered that, even when excluding any direct strikes to the coastal basin, erosion rates were up to 60 times higher than the four-year long-term average, due to this year’s storms.
Scholarship, Stewardship, and the Sea: Mike Callais' LSU Legacy
Charles "Mike" Callais (B.S., Business Management, 1984) is, in every way, the product of the great men who came before him. His love of education, desire to serve his community, and respect for the environment are values that were instilled in him by his father, and his grandfather before him, for his entire life. So, it is especially fitting that he would create a scholarship that combines all three -- the Callais Scholarship for the Advancement of Louisiana's Coastal and Marine Industries.