Hurricane Research
One of the most powerful disturbance events of the natural world is a tropical cyclone or hurricane. Hurricanes have the power to transform coastal landscapes and affect every aspect of a coastal ecosystem. Climate models predict that one possible outcome of climate change are shifts in the frequency, intensity, and spatial distribution of these events. In a warmer world, areas that seldom receive hurricanes may begin to experience them more frequently. Other subtle changes like the amount of rainfall associated with storms and their speed may shift even while maximum wind speeds remain the same. Understanding the controls on ecosystem sensitivity to these events is a critically important part of predicting how future hurricane disturbance regimes will impact coastal systems, and developing management strategies to increase the resilience of both the anthropogenic and natural parts of coastal ecosystems. Currently the CEEL has several different projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that focus on these questions.
Resilience of Coastal Rivers to Tropical Cyclones
Using our coastal river study system in TX and data collected after Hurricane Harvey, we have been studying the role that climate plays in dictating the resistance and resilience of coastal rivers to tropical cyclones. One important conclusion from this project is that rivers in more moderate (wet) climate regimes appear to be more resilient to hurricane impacts. This project is currently winding down (stay tuned for upcoming papers) but the project is continuing in its next iteration: Transitions in Ecological Responses to Rainfall Gradients (TERRG), also funded by NSF.
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Measurements of Ecosystem Responses to Hurricane Events Throughout the World A broader research program has been developing a large synthetic database of measurements of ecosystem responses to hurricane events throughout the world. We’re using this dataset to build statistical models that enhance our understanding of why some storms are so much more destructive than others. This work has been funded through two NSF grants from the Ecosystem Cluster of the Division of Environmental Biology made to CEEL and partners at the University of New Hampshire and Florida International University. 
In the first grant, we received funding to hold a large workshop of hurricane investigators. We brought together over 40 researchers and assembled over 4000 time series of hurricane impacts from nearly fifty storm events. We recently published a conceptual article in Bioscience, A Research Framework to Integrate Cross-Ecosystem Responses to Tropical Cyclones, and are working on a synthesis paper that summarizes the major patterns in our dataset. Starting this year, we’ll be continuing this work in the form of an NSF Research Coordination Network that will allow us to continue to hold workshops to tackle specific questions such as the role of biodiversity, anthropogenic changes to the landscape, and weather preceding storms on ecosystem resistance and resilience.
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