EDUCATION
M.S., Louisiana State University, 2003 -- Thesis: Nekton use and growth in three brackish marsh pond microhabitats
B.S., Marine Fisheries, Texas A&M University, 1998
B.S., Marine Biology, Texas A&M University, 1998
Sarai began working at the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center in 2006 with a group of field ecologists interested in monitoring and assessment of coastal restoration projects. She now serves as the program manager for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) funded by the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA). CRMS is one of the world's largest wetland monitoring programs with publically available data. Since 2006, nearly 400 CRMS sites have been collecting data throughout Louisiana's coastal zone monitoring aspects of wetland hydrology, vegetation, surface elevation and land area change. As program manager, Sarai represents USGS as the federal sponsor for CRMS. She is responsible for all aspects of budgeting, contracting, coordination, work planning, supervision and staffing. Program level interactions require regular coordination with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana and 5 federal partner agencies. She also acts as a liaison between the CRMS analytical teams and data delivery teams to develop web tools and maintain the CRMS website.
CRMS uses a multiple reference approach to biological monitoring and uses aspects of hydrogeomorphic functional assessments and probabilistic sampling that address the limited effectiveness of the traditional paired-reference monitoring approach in Louisiana.
This approach includes a suite of sites that encompass the range of ecological conditions for each stratum, with projects placed...
The Coastwise Reference Monitoring System was designed to monitor the effectiveness of restoration actions at individual sites, as well as across the entire Louisiana coast.
This study will employ a space for time substitution to show long-term effects of rising sea-level and increasing salinity on vegetation community structure, primary production and decomposition. Productivity and decomposition rates will be estimated for four wetland plant community types defined by salinity zones and dominant plant species.
The Floristic Quality Index (FQI) has been used in many areas throughout the United State to assess the integrity of plant communities and restoration projects. Here, we summarize two tools that have been developed for monitoring sites in coastal Louisiana wetlands. The FQI was modified for herbaceous data collected in coastal Louisiana monitoring...
Dorney, John; Savage, Rick; Tiner, R.W.; Adamus, Paul; Cretini, Kari; Wood, William B.; Visser, Jenneke M.; Krauss, Ken W.; Sharp, Leigh Anne; Steyer, Gregory D.; Shaffer, Gary P.; Piazza, Sarai The loss of coastal marshes is a topic of great concern, because these habitats provide tangible ecosystem services and are at risk from sea-level rise and human activities. In recent years, significant effort has gone into understanding and modeling the relationships between the biological and physical factors that contribute to marsh stability....
Schoolmaster, Donald; Stagg, Camille L.; Sharp, Leigh Anne; McGinnis, Tommy S.; Wood, Bernard; Piazza, Sarai Above- and belowground production in coastal wetlands are important contributors to carbon accumulation and ecosystem sustainability. As sea level rises, we can expect shifts to more salt-tolerant communities, which may alter these ecosystem functions and services. Although the direct influence of salinity on species-level primary production has...
Stagg, Camille L.; Schoolmaster, Donald; Piazza, Sarai; Snedden, Gregg; Steyer, Gregory D.; Fischenich, Craig J; McComas, Robert W. The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill damaged thousands of km2 of intertidal marsh along shorelines that had been experiencing elevated rates of erosion for decades. Yet, the contribution of marsh oiling to landscape-scale degradation and subsequent land loss has been difficult to quantify. Here, we applied advanced remote sensing...
Beland, Michael; Biggs, Trent W.; Roberts, Dar A.; Peterson, Seth H.; Kokaly, Raymond F.; Piazza, Sarai Coastal wetland responses to sea-level rise are greatly influenced by biogeomorphic processes that affect wetland surface elevation. Small changes in elevation relative to sea level can lead to comparatively large changes in ecosystem structure, function, and stability. The surface elevation table-marker horizon (SET-MH) approach is being used...
Osland, Michael J.; Griffith, Kereen T.; Larriviere, Jack C.; Feher, Laura C.; Cahoon, Donald R.; Enwright, Nicholas M.; Oster, David A.; Tirpak, John M.; Woodrey, Mark S.; Collini, Renee C.; Baustian, Joseph J.; Breithaupt, Joshua L.; Cherry, Julia A; Conrad, Jeremy R.; Cormier, Nicole; Coronado-Molina, Carlos A.; Donoghue, Joseph F.; Graham, Sean A.; Harper, Jennifer W.; Hester, Mark W.; Howard, Rebecca J.; Krauss, Ken W.; Kroes, Daniel; Lane, Robert R.; McKee, Karen L.; Mendelssohn, Irving A.; Middleton, Beth A.; Moon, Jena A.; Piazza, Sarai; Rankin, Nicole M.; Sklar, Fred H.; Steyer, Gregory D.; Swanson, Kathleen M.; Swarzenski, Christopher M.; Vervaeke, William; Willis, Jonathan M; Van Wilson, K.
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana and the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act, developed the Forested Floristic Quality Index (FFQI) for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS). The FFQI will help evaluate forested wetland sites on a...
Wood, William B.; Shaffer, Gary P.; Visser, Jenneke M.; Krauss, Ken W.; Piazza, Sarai C.; Sharp, Leigh Anne; Cretini, Kari F. Above- and belowground production in coastal wetlands are important contributors to carbon accumulation and ecosystem sustainability. As sea level rises, we can expect shifts to more salt-tolerant communities, which may alter these ecosystem functions and services. Although the direct influence of salinity on species-level primary production has...
Stagg, Camille L.; Schoolmaster, Donald R.; Piazza, Sarai C.; Snedden, Gregg; Steyer, Gregory D.; Fischenich, Craig J; McComas, Robert W. Soil bulk density (BD), soil organic matter (SOM) content, and a conversion factor between SOM and soil organic carbon (SOC) are often used in estimating SOC sequestration and storage. Spatial variability in BD, SOM, and the SOM–SOC conversion factor affects the ability to accurately estimate SOC sequestration, storage, and the benefits (e.g.,...
Wang, Hongqing; Piazza, Sarai C.; Sharp, Leigh A.; Stagg, Camille L.; Couvillion, Brady R.; Steyer, Gregory D.; McGinnis, Thomas E. The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill was the largest coastal spill in U.S. history. Monitoring subsequent change in marsh plant community distributions is critical to assess ecosystem impacts and to establish future coastal management priorities. Strategically deployed airborne imaging spectrometers, like the Airborne Visible/Infrared...
Beland, Michael; Roberts, Dar A.; Peterson, Seth H.; Biggs, Trent W.; Kokaly, Raymond F.; Piazza, Sarai; Roth, Keely L.; Khanna, Shruti; Ustin, Susan L.
A Vegetation Volume (VV) variable and Vegetation Volume Index (VVI) have been developed for the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS). The VV is a measure of the amount of three-dimensional vegetative structure present at each CRMS site and is based on vegetation data collected annually. The VV uses 10 stations per CRMS site to quantify...
Wood, William B.; Visser, Jenneke M.; Piazza, Sarai C.; Sharp, Leigh A.; Hundy, Laura C.; McGinnis, Tommy E.
Wetland sediment data were collected in 2009 and 2010 throughout the southwest Louisiana Chenier Plain as part of a pilot study to develop a diatom-based proxy for past wetland water chemistry and the identification of sediment deposits from tropical storms. The complete dataset includes forty-six surface sediment samples and nine sediment cores....
Smith, Kathryn E. L.; Flocks, James G.; Steyer, Gregory D.; Piazza, Sarai C. We applied a spectroscopic analysis to Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data collected from low and medium altitudes during and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to delineate the distribution of oil-damaged canopies in the marshes of Barataria Bay, Louisiana. Spectral feature analysis compared the AVIRIS data to...
Kokaly, Raymond F.; Couvillion, Brady; Holloway, JoAnn M.; Roberts, Dar A.; Ustin, Susan L.; Peterson, Seth H.; Khanna, Shruti; Piazza, Sarai C.