Tree growth resilience after hurricanes

What is it about?

Researchers report that tree growth rates prior to a hurricane outweighed hurricane damage and damage to neighboring trees in determining post-disturbance growth. To date, the effect of tree crown disturbance on subsequent stem growth has remained unclear. Laura E. Boeschoten and colleagues analyzed airborne LiDAR measurements and field measurements for 1,082 trees in Puerto Rico before and after Hurricane María in 2017. The authors quantified damage to individual trees and to trees within 5 meters of them, a metric termed “neighborhood-level damage.” On average, growth rates of trees after the hurricane were similar to growth rates before the hurricane. Heavily damaged trees exhibited moderately reduced growth rates. Individual trees’ growth rates were not affected by damage to nearby trees, suggesting that reduced competition for canopy space did not affect growth rates. Instead, an individual tree’s growth rate before the hurricane emerged as the strongest predictor of post-hurricane growth rate. The findings suggest that even after a severe disturbance, growth and carbon uptake in the surviving trees remain resilient. Models of vegetation growth tend to assume that disturbance-induced damage suppresses tree growth, and these findings challenge the assumption, according to the authors.

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Photo by Ryan on Unsplash

Photo by Ryan on Unsplash