Mississippi Delta Sediment Crisis
Edmonds, D.A., Toby, S.C., Siverd, C.G., Twilley, R., Bentley, S.J., Hagen, S. and Xu, K. Nature Sustainability (2023) 6:644–651
Research from scientists at Indiana University and Louisiana State University reveals new information about the role humans have played in large-scale land loss in the Mississippi River Delta — crucial information in determining solutions to the crisis. Published in Nature Sustainability, the study compares the impacts of different human actions on land loss and explains historical trends. Until now, scientists have been unsure about which human-related factors are the most consequential, and why the most rapid land loss in the Mississippi River Delta occurred between the 1960s and 1990s and since has slowed down.
Optimal vegetation height for sedimentation in deltaic freshwater marshes
Nardin, W. and Edmonds, D.A. Nature Geoscience (2014) 7(10):722-726
River deltas support a disproportionate percentage of the world’s population and some are drowning as sea level rises. Resilient deltas theoretically balance relative sea-level rise with vertical growth from surface sedimentation. Vegetation generally enhances inorganic sedimentation and resiliency in some settings, such as tidal saltwater marshes, but the effect of vegetation on freshwater marshes in river deltas is less clear.
Fluvio-deltaic avulsions during relative sea-level fall
Nijhuis, A.G., Edmonds, D.A., Caldwell, R.L., Cederberg, J.A., Slingerland, R.L., Best, J.L., Parsons, D.R., and Robinson, R.A.J. Geology (2015) 43 (8): 719-722.
Understanding river response to changes in relative sea level (RSL) is essential for predicting fluvial stratigraphy and source-to-sink dynamics. Recent theoretical work has suggested that rivers can remain aggradational during RSL fall, but field data are needed to verify this response and investigate sediment deposition processes. We show with field work and modeling that fluvio-deltaic systems can remain aggradational or at grade during RSL fall, leading to superelevation and continuation of delta lobe avulsions.
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79. Gearon, J.H., Martin, H.K., DeLisle, C., Barefoot, E., Mohrig, D., Paola, C., and Edmonds, D.A., Rules of River Avulsion Change Downstream, Nature, accepted. |
78. Doane, T., Gearon, J.H., Martin, H.K., Yanites, B.J., Edmonds D.A., Topographic Roughness as an Emergent Property of Geomorphic Processes and Events, AGU Advances, accepted. |
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76. Day, J., Anthony, E., Costanza, R., Edmonds, D.A., Gunn, J., Hopkinson, C., Mann, M., Morris, J., Osland. M., Quirk, T., Rovai, A., Rybczyk, J., Spencer, T., Stephens, J., Syvitski, J., Twilley, R., Visser, J., and White, J. (2024), Coastal Wetlands in the Anthropocene, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, DOI |
75. Martin, H.K., Edmonds, D.A., Yanites, B.J., and Niemi, H. (2024) Quantifying landscape change following the catastrophic dam failures in Edenville and Sanford, MI, USA, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, DOI |
74. Martin, H.K., Edmonds, D.A., and Lewis, Q.W. (2024) Four years of meandering captured by drone-based lidar surveys reveal lack of width maintenance on the White River, Indiana, USA, Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface, in revision |
73. Chenevert, E. and Edmonds, D.A. (2024) Machine Learning Predictions of Vertical Accretion in the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain, Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, accepted |
72. Henson, R.H., Edmonds, D.A., and Lazarus, E. (2024) Remotely sensed land-cover change and floodplain disturbance following upstream-migrating river avulsions in tropical rainforests, River Research and Applications, 1-16. DOI |
71. Martin, H.K. and Edmonds, D.A. (2023) Avulsion dynamics determine fluvial fan morphology in a cellular model, Geology, DOI |
70. Nienhuis, J.H., Ashton, A.D., Edmonds, D.A., Hoitink, A.J.F., Kettner, A.J., Rowland, J.C., and Tornqvist, T.E., (2023) Reply to: Concerns about data linking delta land gain to human action. Nature 614, E26–E28 DOI |
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68. Vulis, L., Tejedor, A., Ma, H., Nienhuis, J.H., Broaddus*, C.M., Brown*, J., Edmonds, D.A., Rowland, J.C., and Foufoula-Georgiou, E. River delta morphotypes emerge from multiscale characterization of shorelines, 2023, Geophysical Research Letters 50(7). Link |
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66. Nienhuis, J.H., Cox, J.R., O'Dell, J., Edmonds, D.A., and Scussolini, P., (2022) A global open-source database of flood-protection levees on river deltas (openDELvE), Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 4087–4101. Link |
65. *Broaddus, C.M., Vulis, L.M., Nienhuis, J.H., Tejedor, A., Brown, J.*, Foufoula-Georgiou, E., Edmonds, D.A. (2022) First-order river delta morphology is explained by the sediment flux balance from rivers, waves, and tides, Geophysical Research Letters. Link |
64. *Lee, D.B., *Martin, H.K., and Edmonds, D.A. (2022) A method to detect abrupt shifts in river channel position using a Landsat-derived water occurrence record, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Link |
63. Brooke, S., Chadwick, A.J., Silvestre, J., Lamb, M.P., Edmonds, D.A., and Ganti, V. (2022) Where Rivers Jump Course, Science. Link |
62. *Valenza, J.M., Edmonds D.A., and Weissmann, G.S., (2022) Quantifying river avulsion activity from satellite remote sensing: Implications for how avulsions build floodplains and stratigraphy in foreland basins, Journal of Sedimentary Research, in press. |
61. *Martin, H.K., and Edmonds D.A., (2022)The push and pull of abandoned channels: How floodplain processes and healing affect avulsion dynamics and alluvial landscape evolution in foreland basins, Earth Surface Dynamics. Link |
60. Edmonds, D.A., *Martin, H., *Valenza, J., *Henson, R., Weissmann, G., Miltenberger, K., Mans, W., Moore, J., Slingerland, R., Gibling, M., Bryk, A., and Hajek, E., (2022) Rivers in reverse: upstream-migrating dechannelization and flooding cause avulsions on fluvial fans. Geology 49. Link |
59. Knights, D., Sawyer, A., Edmonds, D., Olliver, E., and Barnes, R., (2021) The Relationship between Delta Form and Nitrate Retention Revealed by Numerical Modeling Experiments, Water Resources Research. Link |
58. Naylor, S.N., Wickert, A., Edmonds, D.A., and Yanites, B.J., Landscape evolution under the Southern Laurentide ice sheet, Science Advances. Link |
57. *Doane, T.H., Edmonds, D.A., Yanites, B.J., and Lewis, Q.W., (2021) Topographic roughness on forested hillslopes: a theoretical approach for quantifying hillslope sediment flux from tree throw, Geophysical Research Letters. Link |
56. *Olliver, E.A., and Edmonds, D.A., (2021) Hydrological connectivity controls magnitude and distribution of sediment deposition within the deltaic islands of Wax Lake Delta, LA, USA, Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface. Link |
55. Sumaiya S., Czuba, J.A., Schubert, J.T., David S.R., Johnston G.H., Edmonds, D.A. (2021) Sediment Transport Potential in a Hydraulically Connected River and Floodplain‐Channel System, Water Resources Research. Link |
54. Edmonds, D.A., Chadwick, A.J., Lamb, M.P., Lorenzo-Trueba, J., Murray, A.B., Nardin, W., Salter, G., and Shaw J.B., (2021) Morphodynamic modelling of river-dominated deltas: a review and future perspectives, Treatise of Geomorphology, vol. 2. Link |
53. Gunn, A, *Wanker, M., Lancaster, N., Edmonds, D., Ewing, R., and Jerolmack, D., (2021) Circadian rhythm of dune-field activity, Geophysical Research Letters. Link |
52. Edmonds D.A., *Caldwell, R.L., Brondizio, E., Siani, S., (2020) Coastal flooding will disproportionately impact people on river deltas, Nature Communications. Link |
51. *Roy, S., Robeson, S.M.*Ortiz, A.C., and Edmonds, D.A., (2020) Spatial and temporal patterns of land loss in the Lower Mississippi River Delta from 1983-2016, Remote Sensing of the Environment. Link |
50. Knights, D., Sawyer, A.H., Barnes, R.T., Piliouras, A., Schwenk, J., Edmonds, D.A., and Brown, A.M., (2020) Nitrate removal across ecogeomorphic zones in Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana (USA), Water Resources Research. Link |
49. Gunn, A., Schmutz, P., Wanker, M., Edmonds, D.A., Ewing, R.C., Jerolmack, D.J., (2020) Macroscopic flow disequilibrium over aeolian dune-fields, Geophysical Research Letters. Link |
48. Lindroth, E.M., Rhoads, B.L., Castillo, C.R., Czuba, J.A., Guneralp, I., and Edmonds, D.A., (2020) Spatial Variability in Bankfull Stage and Bank Elevations of Lowland Meandering Rivers: Relation to Stage-Discharge Relations and Channel Planform Characteristics, Water Resources Research.Link |
47. Valenza, J., Edmonds D.A., Hwang, T., and Roy, S., (2020) Downstream changes in river avulsion style are related to channel morphology, Nature Communications. Link |
46. Lewis, Q.W., Edmonds, D.A., and Yanites, B.J., (2020) Integrated UAS and Lidar Reveals the Importance of Land Cover and Flood Magnitude on the Formation of Incipient Chute Holes and Chute Cutoff Development, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms.Link |
45. Nienhuis, J.H., Ashton, A.D., Edmonds, D.A., Hoitink, A.J.F., Kettner, A.J., Rowland, J.C., and Tornqvist, T.E. (2020). Global-scale human impact on delta morphology has led to net land area gain. Nature, 1. Link |
44. *Olliver, E, Edmonds, D., and Shaw, J, (2020) Influence of floods, tides, and vegetation on sediment retention in Wax Lake Delta, LA, USA, Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface. Link |
43. *Caldwell, R.L., Edmonds, D.A., Baumgardner, S., Paola, C., *Roy, S., and Nienhuis, J. (2019) A global delta dataset and the environmental variables that predict delta formation on marine coastlines, Earth Surface Dynamics. Link |
42. *Johnston, G.J., *David S.R., and Edmonds, D.A. (2019) Connecting fluvial levee deposition to flood-basin hydrology, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. Link |
41. Zheng, S., Edmonds, D.A., and Wu, B. (2019) Backwater controls on evolution and avulsion of the Qingshuigou channel on the Yellow River Delta, Geomorphology. Link |
40. *Czuba, J.A., *David, S.R., Edmonds, D.A., and Ward, A.S. (2019) Dynamics of surface-water connectivity in a low-gradient meandering river floodplain, Water Resources Research. Link |
39. *David, S.R., Czuba, J.A., and Edmonds, D.A. (2018) Channelization of meandering river floodplains by headcutting. Geology 47(1):15-18. Link |
38. Shaw, J.B., Estep, J., Whaling, A.R., Sanks, K.M., and Edmonds, D.A. (2018) Measuring Subaqueous Progradation of the Wax Lake Delta with a Model of Flow Direction Divergence, Earth Surface Dynamics. Link |
37. Zheng, S., Han, S., Guangming, T., Xia, J., Wu, B., Wang, K., and Edmonds, D.A. (2018) Morphological adjustment of the Qingshuigou channel on the Yellow River Delta and factors controlling its avulsion, Catena, 166, 44-55. Link |
36. Tejedor, A., Longjas, A, Edmonds, D.A., Zaliapin, I., Georgiou, T., Rinaldo, A., and Foufoula-Georgiou, E. (2017) Entropy and optimality in river deltas, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(44):11651-11656. Link |
35. *Moron, S., Amos, K., Edmonds, D.A., Payenberg, T., Sun, X., and Thyer, M. (2017) Avulsion triggering by El Niño-Southern Oscillation and tectonic forcing on the tropical Magdalena River, Colombia. Geological Society of America Bulletin. Link |
34. Millard, C., Hajek, E., and Edmonds, D.A. (2017) Evaluating controls on crevasse-spay size: Implications for floodplain-basin filling. Journal of Sedimentary Research 87:722-739. Link |
33. *Olliver, E., and Edmonds, D.A. (2017) Defining the succession of land building for freshwater, intertidal wetlands within the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science 196:45-57. Link |
32. *Ortiz, A.C., *Roy, S., and Edmonds, D.A. (2017) Land loss by pond expansion on the Mississippi River Delta Plain. Geophysical Research Letters 44:3635–3642. Link |
31. *Moron, S., Edmonds, D.A., and Amos, K. (2016) The role of floodplain width and alluvial bar growth as a precursor for the formation of anabranching rivers, Geomorphology. Link |
30. Rossi, V.M., Kim, W., Lopez, J.L., Edmonds, D.A., Geleynse, N., Olariu, C., Steel, R., Hiatt, M., and Passalacqua, P. (2016) Impact of tidal currents on delta-channel deepening, stratigraphic architecture and sediment bypass beyond the shoreline. Geology. Link |
29. Edmonds, D.A., Hajek, E.A., *Downton, N., and Bryk, A. (2016) Avulsion flow-path selection on rivers in foreland basins. Geology. Link |
28. *David, S.R., Edmonds, D.A., and Letsinger, S. (2016) Controls on the occurrence and prevalence of floodplain channels in meandering rivers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Link |
27. Twilley, R.T., Bentley, S.J., Chen, Q.J., Edmonds, D.A., Hagen, S.C., Lam, N., Willson, C.S., Xu, K., Braud, D., and Peale, H.R. (2016) Co-evolution of wetland landscapes, flooding and human settlement in the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain. Sustainability Science 1-21. Link |
26. Tejedor, A., Longjas, A., *Caldwell, R.C., Edmonds, D.A., Zaliapin, I., and Foufoula-Georgiou, E. (2016) Quantifying the signature of sediment composition on the topologic and dynamic complexity of river delta channel networks and inferences towards delta classification. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43. Link |
25. *Nardin, W., Edmonds, D.A., and Fagherazzi, S. (2016) Influence of vegetation on spatial patterns of sediment deposition in deltaic islands during flood. Advances in Water Resources. Link |
24. Sawyer, A.H., Edmonds, D.A., and Knights, D. (2015) Surface water-groundwater connectivity in deltaic distributary channel networks. Geophys. Res. Lett. 42. Link |
23. *Nijhuis, A., Edmonds, D.A., *Caldwell, R.L., Cederberg, J.A., Slingerland, R.L., Best, J.L., Parsons, D.R., and Robinson, R.A.J. (2015) Fluvio-deltaic avulsions during relative sea-level fall. Geology. Link |
22. Fagherazzi, S. Edmonds, D.A., Nardin, W., Leonardi, N., Canestreslli, A., Falcini, F., Jerolmack, D., Mariotti, G., Rowland, J.C., and Slingerland, R.L. (2015) Dynamics of river mouth deposits. Review of Geophysics. Link |
21. *Burpee A.P., Slingerland, R.L., Edmonds, D.A., Parsons, D., Best, J., Cederberg, J., McGuffin, A., *Caldwell, R.L., *Nijhuis, A., and Royce, J. (2015) Grain size control on the morphology and stratigraphy of river-dominated deltas. Journal of Sedimentary Research. Link |
20. Liang, M.L., Geleynse,N.G., Edmonds, D.A., and Passalacqua, P.P. (2015) A reduced-complexity model for river delta formation: Part II – Validation of the flow routing scheme. Earth Surface Dynamics 3.1:87-104. Link |
19. *Nardin, W. and Edmonds, D.A. (2014) Optimal vegetation height for sedimentation in deltaic freshwater marshes, Nature Geoscience 7(10):722-726. Link |
18. *Caldwell, R.C. and Edmonds, D.A. (2014) A numerical modeling study of the effect of sediment properties on delta process and morphology JGR-Earth Surface. Link |
17. Hajek, E.A. and Edmonds, D.A. (2014) Is river avulsion style controlled by floodplain morphodynamics? Geology. Link |
16. Canestrelli, A., Nardin, W., Edmonds, D.A., Fagherazzi, S., and Slingerland R.L. (2014) Importance of frictional effects and jet instability on the morphodyanmics of river mouth bars and levees JGR-Oceans, 119. Link |
15. Edmonds, D.A. and Caldwell, R.C. (2014) River Delta Processes and Shapes, Encyclopedia of Natural Resources, ed. Y.Q. Wang. |
14. Nardin, W., Mariotti, G., Edmonds, D.A., Guerico, R., and Fagherazzi, S. (2013) Growth of river mouth bars in sheltered bays in the presence of frontal waves. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 118:872–886. Link |
13. Snyder, N.P., Nesheim, A.O., Wilkins, B.C., and Edmonds, D.A. (2012) Predicting grain size in gravel-bedded rivers using digital elevation models: application to paraglacial watersheds in Maine. Geological Society of America Bulletin. Link |
12. Edmonds, D.A. (2012) Restoration Sedimentology. Nature Geoscience 5(11):758. Link |
11. Edmonds, D.A. (2012) Stability of backwater influenced bifurcations: a study of the Mississippi-Atchafalaya bifurcation. Geophysical Research Letters 39:L08402. Link |
10. Edmonds, D.A., Paola, C., Hoyal, D., and Sheets, B. (2011) Metrics to quantify the morphology of river deltas and their channel networks. Journal of Geophysical Research—Earth Surface. Link |
9. Edmonds, D.A., Shaw, J., and Mohrig, D. (2011) Topset-dominated deltas: a new model for river delta stratigraphy. Geology 39:1175–1178. Link |
8. Paola, C., Twilley, R., Edmonds, D.A., Kim, W., Mohrig, D., Parker, G., Viparelli, E., and Voller, V. (2011) Natural Processes in Delta Restoration: Application to the Mississippi Delta. Annual Reviews of Marine Science 25. Link |
7. Wolinsky, M., Edmonds, D.A., Martin, J., and Paola, C. (2010) Delta Allometry: Growth Laws for River Deltas. Geophysical Research Letters 37:L21430. Link |
6. Edmonds, D.A., Slingerland, R.L., Best, J., Parsons, D., and Smith, N. (2010) The response of river-dominated delta networks to permanent changes in river discharge. Geophysical Research Letters 37:L12404. Link |
5. Edmonds, D.A. and Slingerland, R.L. (2010) Significant effect of sediment cohesion on delta morphology. Nature-Geoscience 3:105–109. Link |
4. Edmonds, D.A., Hoyal, D., Sheets, B., and Slingerland, R. (2009) Predicting delta avulsions: Implications for coastal wetland restoration. Geology 37:759–762. Link |
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2. Edmonds, D.A. and Slingerland, R.L. (2008) Stability of delta distributary networks and their bifurcations. Water Resources Research 44:W09426. Link |
1. Edmonds, D.A. and Slingerland, R.L. (2007) Mechanics of river mouth bar formation: Implications for the morphodynamics of delta distributary networks. Journal of Geophysical Research 112:F02034. Link |