Coastal Hydrology, Hydrodynamics, and Oceanography at LSU

This project aims to understand how cold fronts affect water movement in coastal river deltas. In regions with small tides, such as coastal Louisiana, winds associated with cold fronts are known to be important for circulating water and sediment throughout the region. However, scientists do not understand how water in complex coastal regions, such as coastal river deltas, respond to winds associated with cold fronts. Understanding this interaction is important, because cold fronts may contribute to coastal erosion, a major issue in Louisiana, and restoration efforts must account for the effects of cold fronts to be effective. This project will investigate these issues throughout coastal Louisiana using field measurements and modeling of wind events and water movement. In addition to improving the understanding of water circulation in complex coastal regions, the project will also engage stakeholders and delivers hands-on demonstrations to Baton Rouge (Louisiana) schoolchildren.

The goal of this project is to understand how natural and human-created dispersal networks (e.g. rivers and roads) interact with invasion drivers (e.g. habitat and species traits) to determine cross-scale invasion patterns. This work will be conducted in the Mississippi River Basin; rivers provide a unique opportunity for studying scale-dependent invasion processes because watersheds create discrete boundaries of fish species distribution. Accordingly, many of the most prolific invaders arrive not from distant continents, but from nearby watersheds. Native status for riverine fishes is thus scale-dependent, which affects how invasions are conceptualized and modeled. Using rich datasets of historical and contemporary fish distribution, this project takes a three-pronged approach: 1) using Bayesian tools to quantify invasion drivers across spatial scales; 2) linking concepts from metacommunity and invasion ecology to investigate invasion network dynamics across space; and 3) predicting trajectories of species invasions through time. The project will integrate information from these three research objectives to forecast future riverine invasions across the landscape.

River deltas are highly dynamic ecosystems with complicated hydrology that are of significant societal and environmental importance. This research addresses an urgent need in hydrology to understand how hydrological processes evolve in non-stationary ecosystems using numerical modeling, field observations, and graph theory. The project will develop the concept of Dynamic Water Transport Timescales and establish a framework for quantifying how changes to delta morphology and hydrodynamics impact water transport time. Fundamental questions will be addressed concerning the impacts of multi-decadal morphodynamic change on short-term hydrological transport in river deltas, the surface water responses to internal and external perturbations across time and space, and the links between deltaic channel network structure and water transport times.

This project aims to develop design solutions for the myriad coastal ecological issues in the US Gulf Coast using "Coastal Ecosystem Design" strategies. Our work in the H2O group is largely concerned with understanding how various designs of sediment diversions, freshwater diversions, marsh creation, sediment placement, and wave attenuation features influence surface water connectivity, transport, and long-term ecosystem resilience. 

This project is concerned with understanding the hydrodynamic and eco-geomorphic feedbacks owing to the die-off of Roseau Cane (Phragmites Australis) in the Mississippi Birdsfoot Delta. Specifically, we are working with Dr. Kory Konsoer in LSU Geography & Anthropology to perform hydrographic surveys of river discharge under different vegetation conditions and to use UAVs (Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles) to track dye propagation through and around patches of Roseau Cane 

This project is concerned with understanding the hydrodynamic and sediment partitioning at deltaic bifurcations subject to the die-off of Roseau Cane (Phragmites Australis) in the Mississippi Birdsfoot Delta. Specifically, we are working with Dr. Kory Konsoer in LSU Geography & Anthropology to perform hydrographic surveys of river discharge under different vegetation conditions.

For this cooperative agreement with Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, we are analyzing the wave and current responses to tides, anthropogenic activity, and meteorological events (e.g., hurricanes, thunderstorms, and cold fronts) at two monitoring stations in lower Barataria Bay, LA and in Breton Sound, LA, two basins that will receive large-scale sediment diversions. In addition, we will use acoustic backscatter, sediment sampling, and remote sensing to calculate suspended sediment concentrations throughout the network of sites. 

Project description incoming

Project description incoming