SU grant to fund ecosystem study

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 9, 2009

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What would Southern University and the Scotlandville community look like if the area was managed as a healthy urban forest  ecosystem?

That’s the question that seven Southern Urban Forestry Program professors and their students hope to answer through a four-year, $450,000 grant project funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Although the research proposal specifically talks about urban forest management of the Scott’s Bluff ecosystem, the scope of the work will include much more, said Kamran Abdollahi, professor and Urban Forestry Program leader.

“It’s an ecosystem restoration project,” Abdollahi said. “The main goal is to come up with a management scheme.”

The project includes the following elements:

• The bank stabilization portion will address erosion along a section of the river bank that was cleared of trees. The section seems to be eroding more than neighboring sections of bank that have retained the tree and other vegetative growth, Abdollahi said. This mechanical solution to erosion will be measured against natural solutions, such as planting trees, to see if there is a cost saving in preventing this type of erosion, he said.
• The forest health portion will look at trunk defects that could cause trees to fall in extreme weather, or potential diseases that could effect local trees, such as sudden oak death, among other things.

The pathogen responsible, Phytophthora ramorum, has been found to impact oaks on the West Coast and there is some thought that it could travel eastward, said Daniel Collins, professor of plant pathology.

Part of Collins’ work will be researching the vulnerability of oaks in Louisiana to this pathogen so that scientists can know which species would be most vulnerable.

“Many of these pathogens or pests can get established in urban areas and then move to the rural,” Collins said.

• Professor Yadong Qi will focus on ecology and assessing the potential hazards of trees in extreme weather conditions, such as Hurricane Gustav. She and her students will be measuring trees to see if they are solid or hollow or if they have other problems that could make them vulnerable.

Other portions of the project will assess the quality of the bluff ecosystem and how it functions, water quality and air quality and community perceptions and needs as they relate to the urban forests. All will be tied together through a geographic information system, which can take the information and put it into map form.

Scotlandville is generally bounded on the north by Blount Road and Scenic Highway, on the west by the Mississippi River, on the south by Harding Boulevard and on the east by Elm Grove Garden Drive.

This integration of ecosystem management, while accounting for where people live and work, is not unlike other places in the state or along the coast, Abdollahi said, adding that the Southern project could have wider applications.