“We [can] treat the past decade or so like a really large-scale natural experiment, trying to evaluate how the natural system responds to such a high rate of sea level rise,” said Guandong Li, the lead author of a group of scientists at Tulane University who published the [study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45487-6) Thursday in the journal Nature Communications.
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Rapidly rising seas are wreaking havoc on [Louisiana’s coastal wetlands,](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/new-orleans-sea-level-hurricane-wetlands/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2) and could devastate three-quarters of the state’s natural buffer against hurricanes in the coming decades, scientists found in a study published Thursday.
The new research documents how a [sudden burst of sea level rise](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/10/sea-level-rise-southern-us/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) over the past 13 years — the type of surge once not expected until later this century — has left the overwhelming majority of the state’s coastal wetland sites in a state of current or expected “drowning,” where the seas are rising faster than wetlands can grow.
“We [can] treat the past decade or so like a really large-scale natural experiment, trying to evaluate how the natural system responds to such a high rate of sea level rise,” said Guandong Li, the lead author of a group of scientists at Tulane University who published the [study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45487-6) Thursday in the journal Nature Communications.
The researchers arrived at their findings based on measurements of sea and [wetland](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/29/epa-new-wetland-rule/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) heights at 253 sites throughout coastal Louisiana. “Over the past decade, about 90 percent of the monitoring sites are unable to keep pace with the water level nearby,” Li said.
The news is dire for a state that has already lost [over 2,000 square miles](https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/usgs-louisianas-rate-coastal-wetland-loss-continues-slow#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAlthough%20ongoing%20government%20and%20private,land%20from%201932%20to%202016.) of wetland area since 1932, bringing the ocean ever closer to New Orleans and other population centers and leaving them more vulnerable to storms. Louisiana has launched major efforts to restore its coastal wetlands, replete with [billion-dollar expenditures](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/205m-in-bp-spill-money-for-louisiana-coastal-restoration/2020/08/13/08d58f80-dd93-11ea-b4f1-25b762cdbbf4_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_9) and massive engineering projects — but the state could also use a little help from the Earth itself.
The new research suggests the opposite is happening.
**Read more:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/02/15/louisiana-coastal-erosion-swamp-wetland-loss/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/02/15/louisiana-coastal-erosion-swamp-wetland-loss/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)