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Date 4-13-06
Contact Linda Skupien 228-872-4273
OCEAN
SPRINGS—With the impacts of the Indian Ocean tsunami
and Hurricane Katrina in mind, scientists will meet in Biloxi this
week to set priorities for research about preserving barrier islands
and their role in protecting the mainland.
Guiding a visit
to Horn Island so that participants can see how Katrina affected
the island’s dunes and plant life will be Dr. Greg Carter, chief
scientist of the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Geospatial
Center in Ocean Springs, and his Southern Miss graduate students.
Carter is among
invited researchers from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions
who will confer about barrier islands and their ecological and economic
importance Thursday through Saturday at the Imperial Palace Hotel
and Casino.
The meeting
is hosted by the Barrier Island Consortium, a project supported
by the National Science Foundation and led by Dr. William Smith
of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Participants are scientists
who study barrier islands along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of
the United States as well as other locations around the world.
“The Indian
Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 emphasized the
importance of barrier islands but also raised a lot of questions
about the research needed to help preserve them,” Smith said. “For
example, we need a better understanding of how barrier islands recover
after extreme events like Katrina and how continued coastal development
and a warming global climate may affect their stability.”
Consortium
participants include the University of Southern Mississippi, Wake
Forest, Texas A&M University, Tulane University, University
of Texas at Austin, University of Rhode Island, New Jersey Institute
of Technology, Rutgers University, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and
the Instituto de Ecologia in Veracruz, Mexico.
Carter said
the Southern Miss geospatial center at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory
is particularly interested in how images taken from satellites and
aircraft can be used to study changes that occur on barrier islands
over months, years and decades.
“Satellite images
and aerial photography give us a tremendous amount of information,"
Carter said. "They allow us to measure changes that occur on
the islands much more effectively than ground measurements alone,
and they give us valuable historical records to compare with the
present-day condition of the islands.”
Smith noted
that raising public awareness is key to the survival and health
of barrier islands.
“This is a planning
venture” Smith said. “It’s critical that we plan ways to communicate
the importance of barrier islands to the public and the importance
of taking action based on sound science to preserve barrier islands.
If we help the islands, the islands will help us.”
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