Aware of the rapid rate of relative sea level rise observed at the seaward end of the Barataria Basin more than 50 kilometers south of the Barataria Preserve, and already observing increased flooding at the Preserve itself, in the mid 1990’s park resource managers and ecological scholars prioritized understanding the consequences of increasing hydroperiod for the ecological integrity of the Preserve’s predominantly freshwater coastal wetlands. They sought tools that would enable observation of change over time and prediction of hydrological, biological and biogeochemical responses to change. In 1998, they established a 5 hectare research and monitoring plot in a mature bottomland hardwood ecosystem, spanning a 1 meter elevation gradient extending from the crest of a natural levee ridge down its backslope. In the next decade, scientists added more long-term research plots and a transect traversing the Preserve’s geological “backbone”.
Here we introduce our newest tool, the elevation and hydrology dynamics monitoring array. We describe its landscape scale design, its instrumentation, the observations it enables, the data we collect and our plans for data stewardship. We address its role in the portfolio of change-observing tools at the Barataria Preserve, how it leverages existing datasets and studies, and how it complements similar tools at sites across the Gulf of Mexico coastline and along coasts worldwide.
Results/Conclusions
The array consists of 13 stations established along a transect perpendicular to the Mississippi River distributary channel that shaped this landscape, plus 6 stations at key park infrastructure sites. The transect captures most of the geological, hydrological and ecological variation in the upper Barataria Basin. We have installed a benchmark rod, a surface marker horizon and a water level well at each station, and we have provided a surface elevation table collar for all but the floating marsh benchmarks. These stations leverage established vegetation monitoring plots, and they are augmented by a spatially-intensive array of water level loggers deployed from Bayou des Familles across its eastern natural levee ridge and down its impounded backslope bordering the hurricane protection levee.
What do these tools offer park managers? Can they help the park prepare for changing conditions? Beyond park boundaries, can they inform coastal management at regional scales? How can they contribute to building scientific understanding? Using the Barataria Preserve as a case study, we describe our aspirations for learning from the elevation and hydrology dynamics array and from the broader portfolio of change-observing tools it joins.