Collaborative research: A mechanistic approach to assess the impacts of hurricanes on tropical forests

大西洋飓风的强度和频率一直在增加。飓风改变了森林结构，增加了大气中的碳排放。严重的飓风有利于喜光的树种，这些树种特别容易受到风的破坏，使森林更容易受到随后的飓风的影响。更严重的飓风也可能导致以抗风物种为主的矮林的发展。在短期内，严重飓风对树木的破坏将减少森林的碳储量，并且通过加速分解，死亡生物质中的大部分碳将以二氧化碳的形式返回大气。然而，更严重的飓风对碳动态的长期影响尚不清楚，这取决于飓风的严重程度和扰动后树木的建立、生长和死亡。这项研究将使用飓风María在波多黎各之后收集的数据来提高对这些长期影响的理解。社会将受益于可用于预测森林对气候变化的适应能力的建模方案的发展。研究结果将与美国林业局的科学家和管理人员分享，28名年轻科学家将获得生态研究方面的宝贵经验。拟议的研究研究了2017年飓风María经过波多黎各造成的独特情况，以获得关于极端风对森林影响的重要新知识，并开发一种现实的方法来表示森林对地球系统模型中风灾的反应。María是自1928年以来直接登陆波多黎各的最强飓风，可能反映了北大西洋飓风的变化。该项目完成了对16公顷的Luquillo森林动态地块的第七次五年普查，以表征扰动后树木的生长、生长和延迟死亡。该项目结合了飓风María和两次较弱风暴——雨果飓风（1989年）和乔治飓风（1998年）——之后的树木破坏和森林恢复数据，以及空中激光导出的树木生物力学特性表示。这些信息将用于描述树种的冠层结构与其对一系列飓风严重程度的反应之间的关系。然后，这些数据将用于生态系统人口学模型，从而评估各种气候变化情景对森林和碳动态的影响。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 intensity and frequency of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean have been increasing. Hurricanes change forest structure and can increase carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Severe hurricanes favor light-loving tree species that are particularly vulnerable to wind damage, making forests more vulnerable to subsequent hurricanes. More severe hurricanes may also lead to the development of shorter forests dominated by wind-resistant species. In the short term, tree damage from severe hurricanes will reduce forest carbon storage and through accelerated decomposition, much of the carbon in dead biomass will return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. However, the long-term effects of more severe hurricanes on carbon dynamics are not well understood and depend on the severity of the hurricane and post-disturbance tree establishment, growth, and death. The research will use data collected after Hurricane María in Puerto Rico to improve understanding of these long-term effects. Society will benefit from the development of modeling schemes that can be used to predict forest resilience to climate change. Results will be shared with scientists and managers working in the U.S Forest Service and 28 young scientists will gain valuable experience in ecological research.The proposed research studies the unique situation caused by the passage of Hurricane María over Puerto Rico in 2017 to gain important, new knowledge about the effects of extreme wind on forests and to develop a realistic approach to representing forest responses to wind damage in earth system models. María was the strongest hurricane to make direct landfall in Puerto Rico since 1928 and may reflect changes in North Atlantic hurricanes. This project completes the seventh 5-year census of the 16 hectare Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot to characterize post-disturbance tree recruitment, growth, and delayed mortality. The project combines data on tree damage and forest recovery after Hurricane María and two weaker storms, hurricanes Hugo (1989) and Georges (1998), with aerial laser-derived representation of tree biomechanical properties. This information will be used to characterize the relationship between canopy structure of tree species and their response to a range of hurricane severities. The data will then be used in the Ecosystem Demography model, allowing assessment of the impacts of various climate change scenarios on forest and carbon dynamics.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.