20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm
Abstract Projected increases in hurricane intensity under a warming climate will have profound effects on many forest ecosystems. One key challenge is to disentangle the effects of wind damage from the myriad factors that influence forest structure and species distributions over large spatial scales...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10776 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.10776 |
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.10776 2024-06-02T08:11:26+00:00 20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm Uriarte, María Tang, Chengliang Morton, Douglas C. Zimmerman, Jess K. Zheng, Tian Division of Environmental Biology Microsoft 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10776 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.10776 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 13, issue 11 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2023 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10776 2024-05-03T11:59:28Z Abstract Projected increases in hurricane intensity under a warming climate will have profound effects on many forest ecosystems. One key challenge is to disentangle the effects of wind damage from the myriad factors that influence forest structure and species distributions over large spatial scales. Here, we employ a novel machine learning framework with high‐resolution aerial photos, and LiDAR collected over 115 km 2 of El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico to examine the effects of topographic exposure to two hurricanes, Hugo (1989) and Georges (1998), and several landscape‐scale environmental factors on the current forest height and abundance of a dominant, wind‐resistant species, the palm Prestoea acuminata var. montana . Model predictions show that the average density of the palm was 32% greater while the canopy height was 20% shorter in forests exposed to the two storms relative to unexposed areas. Our results demonstrate that hurricanes have lasting effects on forest canopy height and composition, suggesting the expected increase in hurricane severity with a warming climate will alter coastal forests in the North Atlantic. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Wiley Online Library Ecology and Evolution 13 11 |
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English |
description |
Abstract Projected increases in hurricane intensity under a warming climate will have profound effects on many forest ecosystems. One key challenge is to disentangle the effects of wind damage from the myriad factors that influence forest structure and species distributions over large spatial scales. Here, we employ a novel machine learning framework with high‐resolution aerial photos, and LiDAR collected over 115 km 2 of El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico to examine the effects of topographic exposure to two hurricanes, Hugo (1989) and Georges (1998), and several landscape‐scale environmental factors on the current forest height and abundance of a dominant, wind‐resistant species, the palm Prestoea acuminata var. montana . Model predictions show that the average density of the palm was 32% greater while the canopy height was 20% shorter in forests exposed to the two storms relative to unexposed areas. Our results demonstrate that hurricanes have lasting effects on forest canopy height and composition, suggesting the expected increase in hurricane severity with a warming climate will alter coastal forests in the North Atlantic. |
author2 |
Division of Environmental Biology Microsoft |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Uriarte, María Tang, Chengliang Morton, Douglas C. Zimmerman, Jess K. Zheng, Tian |
spellingShingle |
Uriarte, María Tang, Chengliang Morton, Douglas C. Zimmerman, Jess K. Zheng, Tian 20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
author_facet |
Uriarte, María Tang, Chengliang Morton, Douglas C. Zimmerman, Jess K. Zheng, Tian |
author_sort |
Uriarte, María |
title |
20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
title_short |
20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
title_full |
20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
title_fullStr |
20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
title_full_unstemmed |
20th‐Century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
title_sort |
20th‐century hurricanes leave long‐lasting legacies on tropical forest height and the abundance of a dominant wind‐resistant palm |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10776 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.10776 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 13, issue 11 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10776 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
11 |
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1800757566282661888 |