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Environments resilient in the face of hurricanes, but questions remain, says journal special issue
January 15, 2007The international Estuarine Research Federation (ERF) has announced the publication of a special issue of its scientific journal, Estuaries and Coasts, focused on environmental impacts of hurricanes in coastal areas.
Estuaries and Coasts is a bimonthly scientific journal dedicated to dissemination of research about ecosystems at the land-sea interface. The hurricane special edition was published as the journal's December 2006 issue.
The impetus for the special issue was the intense 2004 hurricane season, in which four major hurricanes made landfall in Florida within a three-month period, according to Holly Greening of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, one of the guest editors for the special issue. "One surprising conclusion that can be drawn from this collection of research is that natural systems are actually quite resilient in the face of these storms. While hurricanes often wreak havoc with human systems and infrastructure, many of the habitats and organisms studied rebounded quite well in the weeks and months following the 2004 storms," said Greening.
"This special issue compiles research findings and results of long-term monitoring to give us a chance to look at these large, anomalous storms in the context of long-term trends," she added. The papers in the journal explore both the individual and cumulative effects of storms on coastal environments, animals, and plants, and examine the effect of these storms on coastal management.
For example, water quality and phytoplankton productivity - a measure of the health of the base of the food web - were impacted by winds and heavy rainfall, but returned to normal within months. One study found that manatees' storm-induced movements away from their home ranges were much smaller than expected. Aquatic plants, referred to as submerged aquatic vegetation or SAV, had a more variable response to hurricane-induced stress, sometimes rebounding and sometimes exhibiting long-term damage.
Damage to shoreline ecosystems varied as well. Dune erosion due to hurricanes was severe in some places but not others. In some parts of coastal Louisiana, large sections of wetlands were lost in extreme storm events.
"A major research goal is to use these unique data sets to develop and test a new hurricane scale for predicting the coastal impacts of extreme storms," noted issue contributor Abby Sallenger of the St. Petersburg, FL, office of the U.S. Geological Survey.
These varying impacts seemed to depend, at least in part, on the characteristics of the storms themselves: direction and speed of approach, point of landfall, and intensity all made a difference in the extent of environmental damage. Storms that carried more rainfall seemed to do more long-term damage than "hit-and-run" storms with higher winds.
"The research compiled in this issue of Estuaries and Coasts is an excellent start in understanding the environmental impacts of these storms," said Greening, "but many questions still need to be answered. We still need to know how storm frequency and intensity, both predicted to increase in the coming years, interact to impact coastal environments and communities. Another outstanding question is the extent to which human alteration of the shoreline determines the coast's resiliency to storms."
Estuarine Research Federation
"This special issue compiles research findings and results of long-term monitoring to give us a chance to look at these large, anomalous storms in the context of long-term trends," she added. The papers in the journal explore both the individual and cumulative effects of storms on coastal environments, animals, and plants, and examine the effect of these storms on coastal management.
For example, water quality and phytoplankton productivity - a measure of the health of the base of the food web - were impacted by winds and heavy rainfall, but returned to normal within months. One study found that manatees' storm-induced movements away from their home ranges were much smaller than expected. Aquatic plants, referred to as submerged aquatic vegetation or SAV, had a more variable response to hurricane-induced stress, sometimes rebounding and sometimes exhibiting long-term damage.
Damage to shoreline ecosystems varied as well. Dune erosion due to hurricanes was severe in some places but not others. In some parts of coastal Louisiana, large sections of wetlands were lost in extreme storm events.
"A major research goal is to use these unique data sets to develop and test a new hurricane scale for predicting the coastal impacts of extreme storms," noted issue contributor Abby Sallenger of the St. Petersburg, FL, office of the U.S. Geological Survey.
These varying impacts seemed to depend, at least in part, on the characteristics of the storms themselves: direction and speed of approach, point of landfall, and intensity all made a difference in the extent of environmental damage. Storms that carried more rainfall seemed to do more long-term damage than "hit-and-run" storms with higher winds.
"The research compiled in this issue of Estuaries and Coasts is an excellent start in understanding the environmental impacts of these storms," said Greening, "but many questions still need to be answered. We still need to know how storm frequency and intensity, both predicted to increase in the coming years, interact to impact coastal environments and communities. Another outstanding question is the extent to which human alteration of the shoreline determines the coast's resiliency to storms."
Estuarine Research Federation
Hurricane Current Events and Hurricane News RSSIda now a coastal low assaulting the Mid-Atlantic
Ida is one stubborn girl. Her remnants have moved out to sea and reformed as a powerful coastal low pressure system that's been raining on the mid-Atlantic since Tuesday night, November 10.
NASA Satellites See Ida Spreading Out Before Landfall
NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Ida, and both have instruments aboard that show her clouds and rains are already widespread inland over the U.S. Gulf coast states.
Typhoon Mirinae is already scaring Philippine residents before Halloween
Another typhoon in the northern Philippines really is something to be scared about, and Mirinae is expected to make landfall there in the mid-morning hours on Halloween, October 31.
Mirinae intensifying while moving away from the northern Marianas
Typhoon Mirinae is moving west and away from the Northern Marianas Islands on a track to a landfall in the Philippines by the weekend. As Mirinae has moved west, NASA's infrared and microwave satellite imagery have seen high, strong thunderstorm development, and a developing eye.
Papahanaumokuakea National Monument Facing Hurricane Neki
A hurricane warning is in force for the Papahanaumokuakea National Monument from Nihoa Island to French Frigate Shoals to Maro Reef. Hurricane conditions likely there by 5 a.m. HST on Friday, October 23.
Researchers can predict hurricane-related power outages
Using data from Hurricane Katrina and four other destructive storms, researchers from Johns Hopkins and Texas A&M universities say they have found a way to accurately predict power outages in advance of a hurricane.
Seismic Noise Unearths Lost Hurricanes
Seismologists have found a new way to piece together the history of hurricanes in the North Atlantic - by looking back through records of the planet's seismic noise. It's an entirely new way to tap into the rich trove of seismic records, and the strategy might help establish a link between global warming and the frequency or intensity of hurricanes.
Baja California Residents Should Prepare for Hurricane Rick
Based on computer forecast models, the residents of southern and central Baja California should prepare over the weekend for now Tropical Storm Rick. Rick formed late yesterday, October 15, and is expected to become a major hurricane over the weekend.
Baja watching Tropical Storm Patricia in the latest GOES-11 satellite movie
The nineteenth tropical cyclone of the Eastern Pacific formed over this past weekend, and strengthened into Tropical Storm Patricia.
NASA satellite reveals a depressed and disorganized Henri
Depression happens to everyone, even tropical storms, and Henri is now tropically depressed. NASA satellite imagery has confirmed he's weakened to a tropical depression and he is further expected to degenerate into a remnant low pressure area.
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