The Science
The state of Louisiana (USA) is losing 25-35 square miles (65-90 square kilometers) of coastal wetlands each year. To combat the diminishing and degrading coastal habitats, discarded Christmas trees are placed in wooden cribs constructed parallel to the shoreline. Volunteers and organisations collect and place trees in these pens to lessen the impact of waves and storms. The calm water between the cribs and coast traps sediment and allows for plants and aquatic life to establish. The quilt, viewed top to bottom, represents a relative sequence of land loss and a reduction in shoreline loss when trees are added offshore.
The Artist
Laura Guertin is an Earth science faculty member at Penn State Brandywine in Pennsylvania, United States. She is trained in marine geology and geophysics and has a passion for helping non-scientists learn STEM topics. One of her science communication tools is quilts for science storytelling. She is on Twitter @guertin and her science art projects can be viewed on her website.
The Theme
The challenges faced by our coastal systems, both natural and caused by humans, directly connect to the theme of Geoscience. The causes of the land loss include reduced volume of particles flowing down the Mississippi River and its tributaries, gradual sinking of the land, and sea-level rise. But not everyone can move away from living in this challenging environment, due to personal/familial or economic reasons. Instead of facing the “doom and gloom” of living on the Louisiana coast, the community has found a way to come together and create a source of coastal optimism, highlighting adaptation and resilience.
Find out more about this piece on the artist’s blog.
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license