ABSTRACT

The roles of various mechanisms that supply sediments from major sources, including rivers and nearshore shelf, to coastal Louisiana are not well understood or quantified, temporally or spatially. Recent studies reveal that an important association between riverine sediment input and the cyclic passage of winter storms results in a periodic supply of suspended sediments to coastal marshlands. The fact that these two mechanisms coincide in winter and early spring maximizes the availability of particulate matter for counteracting coastal land loss by enhancing substrate accretion and plant productivity.

Identification of these optimum periods of suspended sediment activity, when overbank sedimentation, riverine concentrations, flood processes, and cold front passages are synergistic, can maximize the performance of wetland restoration efforts, because mineral matter and nutrients are critical for marsh vitality. When mitigation of coastal land loss is planned, it would be advantageous for weekend restoration to consider this timing when both sediment availability and constructive processes of sediment transport are optimal.