hurricane disturbance
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaying Zhang ◽  
Rafael L. Bras ◽  
Marcos Longo ◽  
Tamara Heartsill Scalley

Abstract. Hurricanes commonly disturb and damage tropical forests. It is predicted that changes in climate will result in changes in hurricane frequency and intensity. Modeling is needed to investigate the potential response of forests to future disturbances. Unfortunately, existing models of forests dynamics are not presently able to account for hurricane disturbances. We implement the Hurricane Disturbance in the Ecosystem Demography model (ED2) (ED2-HuDi). The hurricane disturbance includes hurricane-induced immediate mortality and subsequent recovery modules. The parameterizations are based on observations at the Bisley Experimental Watersheds (BEW) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. We add one new plant functional type (PFT) to the model—Palm, as palms cannot be categorized into one of the current existing PFTs and are known to be an abundant component of tropical forests worldwide. The model is calibrated with observations at BEW using the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimates (GLUE) approach. The optimal simulation obtained from GLUE has a mean relative error of −21 %, −12 %, and −15 % for stem density, basal area, and aboveground biomass, respectively. The optimal simulation also agrees well with the observation in terms of PFT composition (+1%, −8 %, −2 %, and +9 % differences in the percentages of Early, Mid, Late, and Palm PFTs, respectively) and size structure of the forest (+0.8 % differences in the percentage of large stems). Lastly, using the optimal parameter set, we study the impact of forest initial condition on the recovery of the forest from a single hurricane disturbance. The results indicate that, compared to a no-hurricane scenario, a single hurricane disturbance has little impact on forest structure (+1 % change in the percentage of large stems) and composition (< 1 % change in the percentage of each of the four PFTs) but leads to 5 % higher aboveground biomass after 80 years of succession. The assumption of a less severe hurricane disturbance leads to a 4 % increase in aboveground biomass.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 8906-8915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah K. Kennard ◽  
David Matlaga ◽  
Joanne Sharpe ◽  
Clay King ◽  
Aura M. Alonso‐Rodríguez ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 644 ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
JM Hill ◽  
PS Petraitis ◽  
KL Heck

Salt marshes face chronic anthropogenic impacts such as relative sea level rise and eutrophication, as well as acute disturbances from tropical storms that can affect the productivity of these important communities. However, it is not well understood how marshes already subjected to eutrophication and sea level rise will respond to added effects of episodic storms such as hurricanes. We examined the interactive effects of nutrient addition, sea level rise, and a hurricane on the growth, biomass accumulation, and resilience of the saltmarsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora in the Gulf of Mexico. In a microtidal marsh, we manipulated nutrient levels and submergence using marsh organs in which cordgrasses were planted at differing intertidal elevations and measured the impacts of Hurricane Isaac, which occurred during the experiment. Prior to the hurricane, grasses at intermediate and high elevations increased in abundance. After the hurricane, all treatments lost approximately 50% of their shoots, demonstrating that added nutrients and elevation did not provide resistance to hurricane disturbance. At the end of the experiment, only the highest elevations had been resilient to the hurricane, with increased above- and belowground growth. Added nutrients provided a modest increase in above- and belowground growth, but only at the highest elevations, suggesting that only elevation will enhance resilience to hurricane disturbance. These results empirically demonstrate that S. alterniflora in microtidal locations already subjected to submergence stress is less able to recover from storm disturbance and suggests we may be underestimating the loss of northern Gulf Coast marshes due to relative sea level rise.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 412
Author(s):  
Tracey Schafer ◽  
Nicholas Ward ◽  
Paul Julian ◽  
K. Ramesh Reddy ◽  
Todd Z. Osborne

Hurricanes cause landscape-scale disturbances that affect biogeochemical cycling and water quality in coastal ecosystems. During Hurricane Irma’s passage through northern Florida, water movements driven by wind velocities up to 105 km h−1 caused a salinity peak in an estuary/blackwater river complex. Water quality was monitored across the 15 km site to detect the magnitude and duration of disturbance. Saline water intruded 15 km inland into a freshwater portion of the river that peaked at a salinity of 2 psu. Due to the volume of precipitation from the hurricane, significant runoff of freshwater and dissolved organic matter (DOM) caused a decrease in salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and Chlorophyll-a concentrations while increasing turbidity and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM). The disturbance caused rapid changes observed by in-situ water quality monitors over a 3-week period, but some effects persisted for longer periods as shown by 3-month weekly water sampling. This disturbance caused shifts in DOM loading, altered salinity dynamics, and reshaped landscapes due to wind and wave surge both in upland marsh and downstream estuary. Hurricane disturbance temporarily and abruptly alters the aquatic continuum, and observations of system response can help us understand the mechanisms associated with ecosystem resilience and recovery.


Author(s):  
Matthew S Kendall ◽  
Bethany L Williams ◽  
Ashley Ruffo ◽  
Arliss J Winship ◽  
Laughlin Siceloff ◽  
...  

The prop roots of mangroves play an important role as habitat for juvenile fishes. Revisit studies (>10 yrs apart) provide rare and valuable insights into the structure and stability of these systems in the face of escalating pressure from coastal development, climate change, and fisheries. We compared assemblages of juvenile fishes in the mangroves of a Caribbean estuary from 1991 to 1993 and 2018 to 2019 using trap collections to quantify changes and identify their potential drivers. Although the environmental and physical properties of the mangrove landscape were similar between the two periods, there were significant changes in many aspects of the fish assemblage. Compared to 25 yrs earlier, overall fish abundance (catch-per-unit-effort) was 3 to 7 times higher but overall biodiversity was 30% lower at the species level and 50% lower at the genus level. Taxa with dramatic changes in CPUE were mojarras (Gerreidae, 84% lower CPUE in 2018–2019), snappers (17 times higher CPUE), puffers (Tetraodontidae, 14 times higher CPUE), and moray eels (>200 times higher CPUE). Traps in 2019 also captured the first documented invasive Indo-Pacific swimming crab (Charybdis helerii) in the US Virgin Islands. The observed changes in the fish assemblage may be due to natural variations in recruitment, environmental influences, and/or hurricane disturbance, but for some species likely relate to declines in adult reef fish populations in the region.


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