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Evaluating Basin/Shelf Effects in the Delivery of Sediment-Hosted Contaminants in the Atchafalaya and Mississippi River Deltas - a New U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Project
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Water & Sediment
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Project Summary
This project responds to the demand to better understand and assess lower Mississippi sediment-hosted pollutant accumulation, deposition, and transport to the Gulf of Mexico. We have chosen to compare the storage and delivery of environmentally relevant contaminants (i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides, nutrients, and trace metals) in both the lower Atchafalaya and Mississippi River systems, two systems in which the same riverine load is processed quite differently. Such a strategy allows us to directly target the variable effects of river and shelf sediments as a controlling mechanism for the fluvial delivery of contaminants to the Gulf of Mexico.
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SeaWiFS sediment plume image of the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River deltas during Cruise 1 (USF data). [view enlargement] |
We will also reconstruct and evaluate a complete historical inventory of these pollutants in this heavily industrialized corridor by looking at the geochronological record within shallow sediments. Results will be used to assess the environmental impact of sediment-hosted contaminants and will be evaluated in a comprehensive hydrogeologic context (i.e., what is the role of subsidence, erosion, river discharge in the ultimate delivery of these pollutants to the Gulf of Mexico?).
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