Research in my laboratory centers around the application of radionuclear techniques to various ecological and environmental questions. My students and I have measured the depositional history of recent sediments in lakes and estuaries of the Chênièr plain of coastal Louisiana. The measurement of the sediment profiles of the fallout radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs (from nuclear weapons testing) and ²¹⁰Pb (from natural radon gas) provides the means to establish a depositional chronology over the last fifty to one hundred years. This gives us the ability to measure the sedimentation rates in areas of rapidly changing Louisiana coastal region. Perhaps more importantly, it allows us to correlate in time the constituents of the sediments. We have thus far focused on the chemical elemental constituents --primarily those which can be determined by neutron activation analyses. Our plans are to extend the constituent analyses and, in cooperation with other research groups, study nutrients and other biologically interesting materials.

Along with Dr. Dwynn Lafleur (Physics), we plan to investigate the transmission of acoustic waves through marsh sedimentary materials. The acoustic properties of the sediments should provide information concerning in-situ structures.