“The Mississippi River Delta Loses a Football Field of Land Every”

Running Head: SURNAME 1

Surname 3
Name
Professor
Course
Date
The Mississippi river delta loses a football field of land every hour article review
Introduction
The article on “The Mississippi river delta loses a football field of land every hour” addresses the issue of Mississippi delta collapse. According to the article, Louisiana has lost nearly 1,900 square miles of land since the 1930s. This is a condition that has been caused by a number of factors determined in the article that continuous to exacerbate the delta dilemma. The insufficient deposition of valuable land-building sediments from the Mississippi river to the delta is determined as the most significant cause of the land loss.
Summary
According to the article, the lower Mississippi river has been cut off from its delta with levees that inhibit the sediment deposition from the river to the delta. The sediments delivered from the river plays a significant role in the building and sustaining the delta’s wetlands above the sea-level. According to the article, a land that is formed by sediments naturally subsides and sinks over time. Therefore, due to the insufficient deposition of land building deposits in the delta from the river, the subsidence dominates and delta wetlands sink. Further, the delta is doomed to continue disappearing below the sea-level a condition that endangers people, wildlife, and jobs.
Review
The devastating impacts on the coastal wetlands have as well been caused by the catastrophic events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. According to the article, the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the form of flooding and storm surge destroyed hundreds of square miles of coastal wetlands in the year 2005. The damage caused by the Hurricanes was worsened by the previous loss of miles of the wetlands. The continued loss of wetlands increases the vulnerability of the coastal communities to storms hence further escalating the land loss problem.
The oil and gas infrastructure in the coastal Louisiana as well have devastating impacts on the coastal wetlands. According to the article, the coastal Louisiana has thousands of offshore oil rigs and onshore wells that are connected by thousands of miles of pipelines. Such activities have directly impacted thousands of acres of coastal wetlands changed the coastal hydrology hence speeding up erosion. The oil and gas canals alter the natural hydrology and permit the penetration of saltwater deep into the wetlands hence disrupting the salinity balance and killing the freshwater vegetation causing them to sink underwater.
Moreover, possible oil spills into the Louisiana shorelines results in devastating impacts on the coastal wetlands. According to the article, the BP oil disaster in the year 2010 affected hundreds of miles of delicate shoreline, thousands of acres of coastal marsh and impacted the economy, societies, and wildlife of the coast. The millions of barrels of oil spilled into the Louisiana shorelines have long-term effects that will continue to impact the coast and its inhabitants in unforeseeable future.
The rising seas combined with subsiding land poses significant threats of Mississippi delta submergence. According to the article, the scientists anticipate the probable rise in the level of the world’s oceans over the next century from one to three feet. This is a condition that can be prevented if sufficient sediments are delivered to the wetlands from the river to help in sustaining the wetlands above the rising seas.
Invasive species in Louisiana have as well been identified to cause disastrous impacts on coastal wetlands. According to the article, nutria, and voracious rodents harms the delta wetlands as they burrow into the ground to feed on the marsh plants roots and devour cypress seedlings. Feral hogs problem is common whereby nutria destroys the wetlands through their aggressive foraging.
The identified causes of delta collapse with devastating impacts on the coastal communities and wildlife pose the need for the imposition of measures to aid in the restoration of the Mississippi river delta. These factors are interrelated in that the continued loss of the protective wetlands as promulgated by the insufficient sediment deposition to delta from the river effectively exposes the coastal communities to the storms further escalating the problem. Therefore, efforts to build and sustain the land in delta should focus on ensuring the sufficient sediment deposition in delta from the river. This will effectively help in sustaining the wetlands above the sea level.

Work Cited
“The Mississippi river delta loses a football field of land every hour.” Mississippi River Delta. (2016). Retrieved on 7th October, 2016 from http://www.mississippiriverdelta.org/discover-the-delta/what-went-wrong/