What's MissDelta and Where Can I Get One?

While this week featured lots of behind-the-curtain items at the office, I want to spend this week's blog talking about one of the four projects I'm a part of for my postdoc. Of the four projects, MissDelta -- the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative -- is the largest. The project is a $22 million, five-year research effort, involving 14 institutions along the gulf coast and Virginia. There are many projects underway as part of MissDelta, including biogeochemical modeling research, field data collection, and economic and sociology research initiatives, to name a few. This project is funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Gulf Research Program, which developed from litigation settlements in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. 

My slice of work for this project is very similar to what I've talked about in previous blogs; our lab is working to evaluate how changes along the Mississippi River affect the health of fish, shellfish, and fisheries in the northern Gulf of Mexico and its estuaries. Here, specifically, we are focused on the Birdsfoot Delta of the Mississippi River, which serves as an economic hub with $400 million in commerce passing through daily. Like many parts of the world, however, this area is under pressure from climate change-induced sea level rise and coastal erosion, which threatens local and global commerce. Therefore, the MissDelta team is working to develop research-driven solutions to support local coastal management decisions. 

Through this project, our MissDelta team is working to develop a diverse coastal workforce (a committee that I serve on) by increasing accessibility to marine and coastal research. Our team has days where we pay for students to go on a research cruise to collect samples in the northern Gulf, days where students get to tour research facilities and talk with experts, and days where our experts present hands-on learning experiences to K-12 students and teachers. While I know that many of my readers are not local to Louisiana or Mississippi, you may know a high school or college student who is nearby. They can get information on some of these events at our newly updated MissDelta website here (missdelta.org). Our administrative team is still working to update the website, though it is up and running with some of the important information available across the different pages. You can even see the co-PIs on the 'People' page, which includes their areas of expertise and contact information. Perhaps your student is interested in undergraduate research or graduate school. The contact information and areas of expertise may provide a good starting point for an aspiring coastal scientist. 

I am really privileged to be part of such an amazing group of experts working to provide solutions to a major challenge for gulf coast communities. While my name is not on the 'People' page because I'm not a co-PI on the project, I am happy to speak with your interested student about coastal research or graduate school. Just fill out the contact form here on the blog and that will get us in touch.