Spatiotemporal, ecological and physiological studies on aftereffects of the hurricane Katrina disasters in Mississippi wetland forests.

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Aftereffects of the attack of the Hurricane Katrina to wetland forests consist mainly of Taxodium distichum and Nyssa aquatica in the Mississippi floodplain were studied spatiotemporally, ecologically and physiologically. In damaged forest stands a rapid increase in number of invasive woody species such as Triadica sebifera and Melia azedarach occurred. Various physiological analyses including growth and photosynthetic rates, ion distribution in organs and osmolite accumulation in leaves were performed to compare flooding and salinity stress tolerance among those native and invasive species. It is concluded that invasive T. sebifera species has high tolerance to flooding and salinity environment as much as that of native species, suggesting the the possibility of rapid expansion of this species in the Mississippi floodplain after occurrences of large-scale disturbances.