The ecological functioning of estuarine and coastal environments in southern Louisiana is critical to assess to determine the relative impacts of coastal loss and degradation and to guide restoration efforts. For example, many commercial fish species important to the economy of southern Louisiana utilize these areas as critical habitat.

There is also a great need for enhanced knowledge of biogeochemical and energy cycling in coastal ecosystems to improve model prediction of biomass changes over various temporal and spatial scales. The data collected on plankton biomass and taxonomic distributions in these areas will be of great value as there is a relative paucity of these data collected in coastal Louisiana.