Researchers at LSU are joining a group of scientists from four universities to investigate naturally occurring methane emissions in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands.
Professors in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science Dubravko Justic, Haosheng Huang and Giulio Mariotti are set to represent LSU when they join the University of Tennessee, Rowan University, the University of Kentucky and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, a research center on the coast of Louisiana, on the project to research how methane gasses affect coastal regions.
The funding for the project comes from a $2.9 million National Science Foundation grant divided among the universities involved. The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium is receiving $945,000, the most funding of the universities involved.
Huang, an associate professor in LSU’s Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, said that it took multiple attempts to fund the project.
The researchers applied to fund methane dynamics research several times but were not approved until February 2022 after refining the original approach.
“We refined our research method and objective,” Huang said. “Then [in] February of this year we got funded.”
According to a press release from LSU, about 40% of all methane in the atmosphere is from coastal wetlands. The team of researchers plan to investigate what components of the wetland affect methane production.
“We accumulated certain experiences and knowledge about Louisiana coastal hydrology and wetland dynamics,” Huang said. “In coastal wetlands, they are microbial communities, they decompose organic organisms and during this process, it will release greenhouse gasses.”
Researchers intend to learn more about how these naturally occurring methane gasses affect global warming and coastal erosion.
“All three scientists at LSU, we are mainly doing simulations about wetland environments,” Huang said. “Especially their change with climate, ways global sea levels will rise, how the wetland will be submerged.”
Annette Summers Engel, a professor of aqueous geochemistry at the University of Tennessee, is the principal investigator of the project, who previously worked together after the BP oil spill to research how Louisiana’s coast was affected.
Prioritizing reduction of greenhouse gasses in their research, Engel said that the researchers will meet virtually as a way to keep the group’s carbon footprint at a minimum during the early stages of this research. Planning field and modeling work will take place virtually, with plans in place to meet in-person for presentations down the line.
“Basically, we will really build this data set about methane and how the Louisiana marshes are changing,” Engel said.
According to Huang, the majority of the research will take place in the coastal marshes of the Terrebonne-Timbalier estuary. There are over 20 locations in Terrebonne parish where data is being collected.
Researchers will collect gas emissions and soil cores over the next two years to develop a baseline information set. After samples are taken, the team will begin to use the data to predict patterns for future use.
“Because of the land loss and rapid relative sea level rise that the coast of Louisiana is experiencing, it really gives us a chance to study this,” Engel said. “This research is ideally done in a place like Louisiana.”
