East Timbalier Island is one of a series of barrier islands that protect the fragile
interior marshes of the Louisiana coast. It is located at approximately 29 degrees,
5 minutes North and 90 degrees, 20 minutes West… or about 100 miles SSW of New Orleans,
LA.

 

This beautiful saltmarsh was the unfortunate victim of a “small-scale” oil spill from
a nearby production platform. Our task is to evaluate the damage and measure the productivity
changes in the wetland plants growing here. This barrier island, and many more just
like it, are the last line of defense for the vast interior marshes further inland.
Without islands like these, countless square miles of highly productive wetlands would
be vulnerable to the ravages of storms and tidal surges.

 

 

Here, the photosynthetic rate of vascular plants is measured using a Li-Cor portable
photosynthesis analyzer. This enables extremely precise measurements of short-term
physiological changes. In this way even very minor changes in productivity can be
documented.

 

In this experiment, numerous transects were established in control sites, mildly affected
sites, and heavily affected sites. These transects ran from bodies of water (ditches,
ponds and bays) that could transmit the oil easily, to sampling sites further and
further away (inland) that could only have oil brought in by tidal action. Both productivity
(photosynthetic rates) and overall health and species composition were measured from
quadrats along these transects.