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Climate and Environment

Loss of Louisiana marshes that protect New Orleans is ‘probably inevitable,’ study finds

The research, based on 8,500 years of wetland history, says sea level is already rising too fast for marshes to catch up

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May 22, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. EDT
An abandoned boat sits in the water amid dead cypress trees in coastal waters and marsh in Venice, La. Many oak trees and cypress trees throughout Louisiana's coastal marshes have died due to a combination of the saltwater intrusion and subsidence. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rising seas are likely to overwhelm the wetlands that line the coast of Louisiana, destroying the protection they offer the city of New Orleans as well as the fisheries and tourism that contribute heavily to the state’s economy, a new study says.

The imperiled wetlands at the base of the Mississippi River have crossed a critical tipping point, according to the new research, which was published in Science Advances and is based on hundreds of measurements that revealed the fate of ancient marshes in this region.