About the Authors

Michael R. Lowe

michael.lowe@eagles.usm.edu

Affiliation Department of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States of America

Wei Wu

Affiliation Department of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States of America

Mark S. Peterson

Affiliation Department of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States of America

Nancy J. Brown-Peterson

Affiliation Department of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, United States of America

William T. Slack

Affiliation United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States of America

Pamela J. Schofield

Affiliation United States Geological Survey, Southeast Ecological Science Center, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MRL MSP NBP WTS PJS. Performed the experiments: PJS. Analyzed the data: MRL WW MSP PJS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PJS MSP WTS. Wrote the paper: MRL WW MSP NBP WTS PJS.