Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Home

WARC conducts relevant and objective research, develops new approaches and technologies, and disseminates scientific information needed to understand, manage, conserve, and restore wetlands and other aquatic and coastal ecosystems and their associated plant and animal communities throughout the nation and the world.

By tracking the health and stability of amphibian populations, the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) provides valuable information on environmental relationships and population dynamics.

Learn More

Have you seen me? Report sightings of non-native and invasive aquatic plant and animal species to the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) information resource.

Report Sightings

Coastal Louisiana wetlands make up the seventh largest delta on Earth and support the largest commercial fishery in the lower 48 states. However, Louisiana currently undergoes ~90% of the total coastal wetland loss in the continental U.S.

Learn more

News

This picture was taken June 23, 2010 along the Louisiana shoreline in Barataria Bay and shows oil spilled from Deepwater Horizon
November 17, 2016

A new USGS-NASA study found widespread shoreline loss along heavily oiled areas of Louisiana's coast after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and compared the erosion from the spill with coastal changes Hurricane Isaac caused in 2012.

Blotched foxface rabbitfish
October 12, 2016

Fish Marks 36th Non-Native Marine Fish Species Found in State

Publications

Signals of impending change
Year Published: 2017

Signals of impending change

Society has an increasing awareness that there are finite limits to what we can expect the planet to absorb and still provide goods and services at current rates1. Both historical reconstructions and contemporary events continue to remind us that ecological regime changes are often abrupt rather than gradual. This reality motivates researchers who seek to discover leading indicators for impending...

Life history plasticity does not confer resilience to environmental change in the mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum)
Year Published: 2017

Life history plasticity does not confer resilience to environmental change in the mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum)

Plasticity in life history strategies can be advantageous for species that occupy spatially or temporally variable environments. We examined how phenotypic plasticity influences responses of the mole salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum, to disturbance events at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (SMNWR), FL, USA from 2009 to 2014. We observed periods of extensive drought early in the study, in...

Climatic controls on the global distribution, abundance, and species richness of mangrove forests
Year Published: 2017

Climatic controls on the global distribution, abundance, and species richness of mangrove forests

Mangrove forests are highly productive tidal saline wetland ecosystems found along sheltered tropical and subtropical coasts. Ecologists have long assumed that climatic drivers (i.e., temperature and rainfall regimes) govern the global distribution, structure, and function of mangrove forests. However, data constraints have hindered the quantification of direct climate-mangrove linkages in many...