Abstract
Marshes of the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain represent 17% of the coastal marshes in the continental United States. However, only a few detailed descriptions of the diverse plant communities that occur in this large expanse of wetlands exist and none are based on detailed vegetation analysis. The objective of this study was to quantitatively analyze the vegetation data collected in the wetlands of the Barataria and Terrebonne estuary to determine naturally occurring vegetation associations. Two-way indicator species analyses (TWINSPAN) revealed nine vegetation types: polyhaline mangrove, polyhaline oystergrass, mesohaline mix, mesohaline wiregrass, oligohaline wire grass, oligohaline mix, fresh bulltongue, fresh maidencane, and fresh cutgrass. These nine types form a logical expansion on the four salinity zone described for the region by previous studies and form a basis to compare the vegetation types of the Mississippi River Delta region with other regions of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
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Visser, J.M., Sasser, C.E., Chabreck, R.H. et al. Marsh vegetation types of the Mississippi River Deltaic Plain. Estuaries 21, 818–828 (1998). https://doi.org/10.2307/1353283
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1353283