Understanding the resilience of longleaf pine savannas following Hurricane Michael

南部长叶松生态系统曾经覆盖了东南沿海平原的大部分地区，是温带最多样化的森林生态系统。飓风是美国东南部生态系统中重要且频繁的干扰，对形成定居前的生态系统很重要。飓风登陆并向内陆移动时，严重破坏了森林。破坏程度随飓风特征和森林组成结构的不同而不同。2018年，飓风迈克尔穿过墨西哥湾北部，导致灾难性的风（2级风力）到达内陆100多英里，并在其路径上造成了广泛的破坏。风暴对森林的影响因当地条件（如土壤、地形）和该地区现有的森林管理战略而异。这种破坏对这些森林的碳、水和能量循环的影响，影响、风暴强度和森林管理之间的关系，以及森林将如何恢复，人们知之甚少。该RAPID奖将探索飓风破坏造成的物理和生态变化如何影响这些森林的耦合生物地球化学循环。该奖项将使当地和区域林业和资源管理者、保护专业人员、政策制定者、木材工业代表和小型私人土地所有者切实了解飓风的影响和基于示范的恢复潜力、管理战略的发展以及自然资源管理和保护的潜在政策。RAPID奖项的主要目标是确定与干扰有关的生态系统结构和功能的变化，因为它与长叶松稀树草原对飓风等干扰的恢复能力有关。在乔治亚州南部和佛罗里达州北部，飓风“迈克尔”摧毁了长叶松林，整棵树被吹倒，枝叶大量流失。维护和恢复该地区长叶松生态系统的努力包括长期研究，这些研究表明其生态系统服务的重要性，包括碳、水和能量交换。在NEON区域东南部的这些长期森林站点中，有三个处于飓风路径中，并建议研究大面积飓风破坏后碳，能量和水循环的机制控制。利用这些地点，本研究将提供飓风影响的脆弱性评估，并利用热力学指标了解生态恢复能力。该奖项将探索基本的热力学概念，以了解这些影响，并解释这些森林的恢复能力和恢复能力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Southern Longleaf Pine Ecosystem once covered much of the southeastern coastal plain and is the most diverse forest ecosystem in the temperate zone. Hurricanes are important and frequent disturbances in southeastern U.S. ecosystems, and were important in shaping pre-settlement ecosystems. Hurricanes significantly damage forests as the hurricane makes landfall and moves inland. The damage extent varies with both hurricane characteristics and forest composition and structure. Hurricane Michael moved across the Northern Gulf of Mexico in 2018, resulting in catastrophic winds (Category 2 force) that reached over 100 miles inland and caused extensive damage along its path. The storm's impact to forests varied with local conditions (e.g. soil, topography) and the forest management strategies present across this area. The implications of this damage to the carbon, water, and energy cycles of these forests, the relationships between impacts, storm intensity, and forest management, and how the forests will recover are poorly understood. This RAPID award will explore how the physical and ecological changes from hurricane damage affect the coupled biogeochemical cycles of these forests. This award will provide local and regional forestry and resource managers, conservation professionals, policy makers, timber industry representatives, and small private landowners practical understanding of hurricane impacts and the potential for recovery based on demonstrations, development of management strategies, and potential policies for natural resource management and conservation. The primary goal of this RAPID award is to determine the disturbance-related shift in ecosystem structure and function as it relates to the resilience of the longleaf pine savanna from disturbances such as hurricanes. In southern Georgia and northern Florida, Hurricane Michael damaged longleaf pine forests by downing whole trees and resulted in extensive loss of branches and leaves. Efforts to maintain and restore longleaf pine ecosystems in this regional include long-term studies that show the importance of its ecosystem services, including carbon, water and energy exchange. Three of these long-term forest sites in the southeastern NEON domain were in the hurricane path and are proposed to study the mechanistic controls on carbon, energy, and water cycling following the extensive hurricane damage. Using these sites, this study will provide a vulnerability assessment of the effects of hurricanes and an understanding of ecological resilience using thermodynamic metrics. The award will explore fundamental thermodynamic concepts to understand the impacts and explain the resilience and recovery of these forests.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.