Dataset Information

Impacts of tropical cyclones on U.S. forest tree mortality and carbon flux from 1851 to 2000.

ABSTRACT: Tropical cyclones cause extensive tree mortality and damage to forested ecosystems. A number of patterns in tropical cyclone frequency and intensity have been identified. There exist, however, few studies on the dynamic impacts of historical tropical cyclones at a continental scale. Here, we synthesized field measurements, satellite image analyses, and empirical models to evaluate forest and carbon cycle impacts for historical tropical cyclones from 1851 to 2000 over the continental U.S. Results demonstrated an average of 97 million trees affected each year over the entire United States, with a 53-Tg annual biomass loss, and an average carbon release of 25 Tg y(-1). Over the period 1980-1990, released CO(2) potentially offset the carbon sink in forest trees by 9-18% over the entire United States. U.S. forests also experienced twice the impact before 1900 than after 1900 because of more active tropical cyclones and a larger extent of forested areas. Forest impacts were primarily located in Gulf Coast areas, particularly southern Texas and Louisiana and south Florida, while significant impacts also occurred in eastern North Carolina. Results serve as an important baseline for evaluating how potential future changes in hurricane frequency and intensity will impact forest tree mortality and carbon balance.

SUBMITTER: Zeng H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2683102 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Impacts of tropical cyclones on U.S. forest tree mortality and carbon flux from 1851 to 2000.

Zeng Hongcheng H Chambers Jeffrey Q JQ Negrón-Juárez Robinson I RI Hurtt George C GC Baker David B DB Powell Mark D MD

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20090427 19

Tropical cyclones cause extensive tree mortality and damage to forested ecosystems. A number of patterns in tropical cyclone frequency and intensity have been identified. There exist, however, few studies on the dynamic impacts of historical tropical cyclones at a continental scale. Here, we synthesized field measurements, satellite image analyses, and empirical models to evaluate forest and carbon cycle impacts for historical tropical cyclones from 1851 to 2000 over the continental U.S. Results ...[more]

PMID: 19416842

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Project description:The extent to which interspecific niche differences structure plant communities is highly debated, with extreme viewpoints ranging from fine-scaled niche partitioning, where every species in the community is specialized to a distinct niche, to neutrality, where species have no niche or fitness differences. However, there exists a default position wherein niches of species in a community are determined by their evolutionary and biogeographic histories, irrespective of other species within the community. According to this viewpoint, a broad range of pair-wise niche overlaps-from completely overlapping to completely distinct-are expected in any community without the need to invoke interspecific interactions. We develop a method that can test for both habitat associations and niche differences along an arbitrary number of spatial and temporal niche dimensions and apply it to a 24-yr data set of the eight dominant woody-plant species (representing 84% and 76% of total community abundance and basal area, respectively) from a 50-ha permanent plot in a southern Indian tropical dry forest, using edaphic, topographic, and precipitation variables as niche axes. Species separated into two broad groups in niche space-one consisting of three canopy species and the other of a canopy species and four understory species-along axes that corresponded mainly to variation in soil P, Al and a topographic index of wetness. Species within groups tended to have significantly greater niche overlap than expected by chance. Community-wide niche overlap in spatial and temporal niche axes was never smaller than expected by chance. Species-habitat associations were neither necessary nor sufficient preconditions for niche differences to be present. Our results suggest that this tropical dry-forest community consists of several tree species with broadly overlapping niches, and where significant niche differences do exist, they are not readily interpretable as evidence for niche differentiation. We argue, based on a survey of the literature, that many of the observed niche differences in tropical forests are more parsimoniously viewed as autecological differences between species that exist independently of interspecific interactions.

Dataset Information

Impacts of tropical cyclones on U.S. forest tree mortality and carbon flux from 1851 to 2000.

Publications

Impacts of tropical cyclones on U.S. forest tree mortality and carbon flux from 1851 to 2000.

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