Vegetation dieback in the Mississippi River Delta triggered by acute drought and chronic relative sea-level rise

Tracy Elsey-Quirk (), Austin Lynn, Michael Derek Jacobs, Rodrigo Diaz, James T. Cronin, Lixia Wang, Haosheng Huang and Dubravko Justic
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Tracy Elsey-Quirk: Louisiana State University
Austin Lynn: Louisiana State University
Michael Derek Jacobs: Louisiana State University
Rodrigo Diaz: Louisiana State University Agricultural Center
James T. Cronin: Louisiana State University
Lixia Wang: Louisiana State University
Haosheng Huang: Louisiana State University
Dubravko Justic: Louisiana State University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Vegetation dieback and recovery may be dependent on the interplay between infrequent acute disturbances and underlying chronic stresses. Coastal wetlands are vulnerable to the chronic stress of sea-level rise, which may affect their susceptibility to acute disturbance events. Here, we show that a large-scale vegetation dieback in the Mississippi River Delta was precipitated by salt-water incursion during an extreme drought in the summer of 2012 and was most severe in areas exposed to greater flooding. Using 16 years of data (2007–2022) from a coastwide network of monitoring stations, we show that the impacts of the dieback lasted five years and that recovery was only partial in areas exposed to greater inundation. Dieback marshes experienced an increase in percent time flooded from 43% in 2007 to 75% in 2022 and a decline in vegetation cover and species richness over the same period. Thus, while drought-induced high salinities and soil saturation triggered a significant dieback event, the chronic increase in inundation is causing a longer-term decline in cover, more widespread losses, and reduced capacity to recover from acute stressors. Overall, our findings point to the importance of mitigating the underlying stresses to foster resilience to both acute and persistent causes of vegetation loss.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47828-x

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