U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
Canopy damage and recovery following Hurricane Maria using multitemporal lidar data, Mar/2017 - Mar/2020, Puerto Rico
Abstract
Hurricane Maria (Category 4) snapped and uprooted canopy trees, removed large branches, and defoliated vegetation across Puerto Rico. The magnitude of forest damages and the rates and mechanisms of forest recovery following Maria provide important benchmarks for understanding the ecology of extreme events. We used airborne lidar data acquired before (2017) and after Maria (2018, 2020) to quantify landscape-scale changes in forest structure along a 439-ha elevational gradient (100 to 800 m) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest. Damages from Maria were widespread, with 73% of the study area losing ≥1 m in canopy height (mean = -7.1 m). Taller forests at lower elevations suffered more damage than shorter forests above 600 m. Yet only 13% of the study area had canopy heights ≤2 m in 2018, a typical threshold for forest gaps, highlighting the importance of damaged trees and advanced regeneration on post-storm forest structure. Heterogeneous patterns of regrowth and recruitment yielded shorter and more open forests by 2020. Nearly 45% of forests experienced initial height loss (<-1 m, 2017-2018) followed by rapid height gain (>1 m, 2018-2020), whereas 21.6% of forests with initial height losses showed little or no height gain, and 17.8% of forests exhibited no structural changesmore »
- Authors:
-
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
- NASA
- University of Wisconsin
- United States Forest Service
- NASA/JPL
- IITF
- Publication Date:
- Other Number(s):
- NGT0172
- Research Org.:
- Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments Tropics; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- Sponsoring Org.:
- US Department of Energy, USDA Forest Service, US Department of Interior, NASA
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1797399
- DOI:
- https://doi.org/10.15486/ngt/1797399
Citation Formats
Leitold, Veronika, Morton, Doug, Martinuzzi, Sebastian, Paynter, Ian, Uriarte, Maria, Keller, Michael, Ferraz, Antonio, Cook, Bruce, Corp, Lawrence, and González, Grizelle. Canopy damage and recovery following Hurricane Maria using multitemporal lidar data, Mar/2017 - Mar/2020, Puerto Rico. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.15486/ngt/1797399.
Leitold, Veronika, Morton, Doug, Martinuzzi, Sebastian, Paynter, Ian, Uriarte, Maria, Keller, Michael, Ferraz, Antonio, Cook, Bruce, Corp, Lawrence, & González, Grizelle. Canopy damage and recovery following Hurricane Maria using multitemporal lidar data, Mar/2017 - Mar/2020, Puerto Rico. United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.15486/ngt/1797399
Leitold, Veronika, Morton, Doug, Martinuzzi, Sebastian, Paynter, Ian, Uriarte, Maria, Keller, Michael, Ferraz, Antonio, Cook, Bruce, Corp, Lawrence, and González, Grizelle. 2020.
"Canopy damage and recovery following Hurricane Maria using multitemporal lidar data, Mar/2017 - Mar/2020, Puerto Rico". United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.15486/ngt/1797399. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1797399. Pub date:Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2020
@article{osti_1797399,
title = {Canopy damage and recovery following Hurricane Maria using multitemporal lidar data, Mar/2017 - Mar/2020, Puerto Rico},
author = {Leitold, Veronika and Morton, Doug and Martinuzzi, Sebastian and Paynter, Ian and Uriarte, Maria and Keller, Michael and Ferraz, Antonio and Cook, Bruce and Corp, Lawrence and González, Grizelle},
abstractNote = {Hurricane Maria (Category 4) snapped and uprooted canopy trees, removed large branches, and defoliated vegetation across Puerto Rico. The magnitude of forest damages and the rates and mechanisms of forest recovery following Maria provide important benchmarks for understanding the ecology of extreme events. We used airborne lidar data acquired before (2017) and after Maria (2018, 2020) to quantify landscape-scale changes in forest structure along a 439-ha elevational gradient (100 to 800 m) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest. Damages from Maria were widespread, with 73% of the study area losing ≥1 m in canopy height (mean = -7.1 m). Taller forests at lower elevations suffered more damage than shorter forests above 600 m. Yet only 13% of the study area had canopy heights ≤2 m in 2018, a typical threshold for forest gaps, highlighting the importance of damaged trees and advanced regeneration on post-storm forest structure. Heterogeneous patterns of regrowth and recruitment yielded shorter and more open forests by 2020. Nearly 45% of forests experienced initial height loss (<-1 m, 2017-2018) followed by rapid height gain (>1 m, 2018-2020), whereas 21.6% of forests with initial height losses showed little or no height gain, and 17.8% of forests exhibited no structural changes >|1| m in either period. Canopy layers <10 m accounted for most increases in canopy height and fractional cover between 2018-2020, with gains split evenly between height growth and lateral crown expansion by surviving individuals. These findings benchmark rates of gap formation, crown expansion, and canopy closure following hurricane damage. Included in the attached zip file are four TIF and four KML files.},
doi = {10.15486/ngt/1797399},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2020}
}