Sedimentary data from the lower Pearl River, Louisiana, USA

Scientists from the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center investigated the sedimentary and geochemical properties of the lower reaches of the Pearl River in eastern Louisiana by collecting estuarine, riverine and marsh sediments. This was done in order to increase understanding of the region's environmental history, quantify the deposition associated with Hurricane Katrina, identify the subsequent changes in the deposited sediments and assess the effects of this deposition on marsh sustainability. To this end, the group obtained long sediment cores, shovel-dug sediment slabs and marsh and riverine channel/estuarine surface samples from a north-south transect along the river edge from the low-salinity bottomland hardwood forest through Lake Borgne, and a west-east transect near the coast, during field work conducted in September 2015.