IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/envman/v31y2003i2d10.1007_s00267-002-2820-6.html

Recovery Trajectories After In Situ Burning of an Oiled Wetland in Coastal Louisiana, USA

Author

Listed:
  • JAMES W. PAHL

    (Duke University Wetland Center, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Box 90333, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0333, USA)

  • IRVING A. MENDELSSOHN

    (Louisiana State University, Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-7511, USA)

  • CHARLES B. HENRY, JR

    (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) HAZMAT, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington 98115-6349, USA)

  • THOMAS J. HESS

    (Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, 5476 Grand Chenier Highway, Grand Chenier, Louisiana 70643, USA)

Abstract

The high degree of physical disturbance associated with conventional response options to oil spills in wetlands is driving the investigation of alternative cleanup methodologies. In March 1995, a spill of gas condensate in a brackish marsh at Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Louisiana was remediated through the use of in situ burning. An assessment of vegetation recovery was initiated in three treatment marshes: (1) oil-impacted and burned, (2) oil impacted and unburned, and (3) a nonoiled unburned reference. We compared percent cover, stem density, and biomass in the treatment marshes to define ecological recovery of the marsh vegetation and soil hydrocarbon content to determine the efficacy of in situ burning as a cleanup technique. Burning led to a rapid decrease in soil hydrocarbon concentrations in the impacted-and-burned marsh to background levels by the end of the first growing season. Although a management fire accidentally burned the oil-impacted-and-unburned and reference marshes in December 1995, stem density, live biomass, and total percent cover values in the oil-impacted-and-burned marsh were equivalent to those in the other treatment marshes after three years. In addition, plant community composition within the oil-impacted-and-burned marsh was similar to the codominant mix of the grasses Distichlis spicata (salt grass) and Spartina patens (wire grass) characteristic of the surrounding marsh after the same time period. Rapid recovery of the oil-impacted-and-unburned marsh was likely due to lower initial hydrocarbon exposure. Water levels inundating the soil surface of this grass-dominated marsh and the timing of the in situ burn early in the growing season were important factors contributing to the rapid recovery of this wetland. The results of this in situ burn evaluation support the conclusion that burning, under the proper conditions, can be relied upon as an effective cleanup response to hydrocarbon spills in herbaceous wetlands.

Suggested Citation

  • James W. Pahl & Irving A. Mendelssohn & Charles B. Henry, Jr & Thomas J. Hess, 2003. "Recovery Trajectories After In Situ Burning of an Oiled Wetland in Coastal Louisiana, USA," Environmental Management, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 0236-0251, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envman:v:31:y:2003:i:2:d:10.1007_s00267-002-2820-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s00267-002-2820-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00267-002-2820-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00267-002-2820-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:envman:v:31:y:2003:i:2:d:10.1007_s00267-002-2820-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.