Understanding the resilience of longleaf pine savannas following Hurricane Michael

南方长叶松生态系统曾经覆盖了东南沿海平原的大部分地区，是温带地区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而频繁的干扰，在形成定居前生态系统方面发挥了重要作用。飓风登陆并向内陆移动，严重破坏了森林。破坏程度因飓风特征以及森林组成和结构而异。2018年，飓风迈克尔横扫墨西哥湾北部，造成灾难性大风(2级风力)，吹向内陆100多英里，并在其路径上造成广泛破坏。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。这一快速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人员、保护专业人员、政策制定者、木材行业代表和小型私人土地所有者根据示范、管理战略的制定和自然资源管理和保护的潜在政策，切实了解飓风的影响和恢复的潜力。这一快速裁决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，因为它与长叶松树稀树草原从飓风等干扰中恢复的能力有关。在佐治亚州南部和佛罗里达州北部，飓风迈克尔摧毁了整棵树，破坏了长叶松林，导致大量枝叶损失。维护和恢复该区域长叶松生态系统的努力包括长期研究，表明其生态系统服务的重要性，包括碳、水和能量交换。其中三个位于东南部霓虹灯区域的长期森林地点位于飓风路径上，旨在研究飓风造成广泛破坏后对碳、能源和水循环的机械控制。利用这些地点，这项研究将提供飓风影响的脆弱性评估，并使用热力学指标了解生态弹性。该奖项将探索基本的热力学概念，以了解影响并解释这些森林的弹性和恢复。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.