Louisiana salt marsh soil 18S SRS barcoding project

This project investigates salt marsh health through 18s metabarcoding. Primary goals include the investigation of biodiversity of sheared marsh margins and generation of baseline data for future identification of effects of planned freshwater diversions on marsh health. The sheared marsh margins collected from in this study are those identified by Rangoonwala et al. 2016 in Barataria Bay, which were caused by Hurricane Issac damaging marshes previously weakened by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Sediment diversions in Barataria Bay proposed in the 2012 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan, with the aim of rebuilding marsh by using river sediment, will have massive effects on the local environment. To prepare for this, baseline data is required. Further documentation of this project will be available on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC).