In our study, all but one of the 13 shoreline, nearshore, and interior marsh sediment samples exhibiting a positive MC-252 oil presence were collected in marshes displaying a dramatic and nearly spatially uniform change in the pre- to post-oil spill PolSAR backscatter mechanism. With this additional independent validation of inland oiling, PolSAR-based documentation that nearshore and interior marshes were exposed to MC-252 oil provides important background and context information for studies examining any suppression in viability of coastal marshes in the northern Gulf

coast. The manuscript was written through equal contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript. Research was supported in part by NASA-United States Grant #11-TE11-104 and was carried-out in collaboration GDC-0980 cell line with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California

Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The authors declare no competing financial interest. We thank Francis Fields Jr. of the Apache Louisiana Minerals LLC, a subsidiary of Apache Corporation, for access to their properties and Jeff Deblieux IV of the Louisiana Land and Exploration Company, a subsidiary of Conoco Phillips, for access to their properties. We thank Buddy Goatcher of the U.S. Fish and learn more Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Warren Lorentz of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for allowing the use of the helicopter video-survey imagery and Gina Saizan of the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office for providing ground-based photography. We are indebted to Clint Jeske and Steve Hartley Oxymatrine of the U.S. Geological Survey for their critical assistance in sediment sample collections, Dr. Heng Gao of LSU-RCAT for her assistance in the sediment extractions, Thomas D. Lorenson

(USGS) for his thoughtful review, Kevin Jones of PCI Geomatics for providing PolSAR mapping instructional materials, and two anonymous reviewers for their effective reviews. Research was supported in part by the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Grant #11-TE11-104 and was carried out in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. UAVSAR data are provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. “
“The artificial reservoir of the Isahaya reclaimed land was created in April 1997 when construction of a 7 km dike shut off the head of Isahaya Bay (35.5 km2 including the tidal flat of 29 km2). Over 6 km2 of the enclosed area has been reclaimed for agricultural purposes, with the reservoir occupying the remaining 26 km2.