Nighttime on the Atchafalaya Basin levee brought a cacophony of sound.
In addition to tree(?) and cricket frogs, we heard the rumbling of bull frogs and the occasional hoot from a barred owl.
The next day, Dr. Keim gave us a tour of some of the flood control structures around New Orleans, such as the Bonnet Carre spillway (below), which releases extra water from the Mississippi into a floodplain. Marshes inside the floodplain have fresher water and higher plant diversity than marshes outside the floodplain.
We also toured ghost cypress forests, which are former cypress forests where the trees have been killed following the anthropogenic introduction of salt water. In many cases, the dead trees remain standing, with just their leafless trunks sticking out of the water.
In addition to tree(?) and cricket frogs, we heard the rumbling of bull frogs and the occasional hoot from a barred owl.
The next day, Dr. Keim gave us a tour of some of the flood control structures around New Orleans, such as the Bonnet Carre spillway (below), which releases extra water from the Mississippi into a floodplain. Marshes inside the floodplain have fresher water and higher plant diversity than marshes outside the floodplain.
We also toured ghost cypress forests, which are former cypress forests where the trees have been killed following the anthropogenic introduction of salt water. In many cases, the dead trees remain standing, with just their leafless trunks sticking out of the water.
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