Hurricanes Not the Key to a Sustainable Coast

In their discussion of the significance of wetland sedimentation during Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, R. E. Turner and coauthors concluded that "riverine sources bring relatively trivial amounts of inorganic sediments into the marsh" ("Wetland sedimentation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," Reports, 20 Oct. 2006, p. 449). Although this new study adds to the body of knowledge concerning the role of tropical storms in sediment redistribution, the authors' conclusion about the unimportance of the Mississippi River in delivering sediment to the coast defies all that we know about deltas and their sustainability. The authors also do not mention that although some marshes received sediments, a net total of 562 km2 of coastal marshes, natural levee ridges, and barrier islands was converted to open water during the two hurricanes...



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