2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/22/2018 | 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM | HURRICANE IMPACTS TO A TROPICAL STREAM ECOSYSTEM IN THE MOUNTAINS OF PUERTO RICO. | 410 B

HURRICANE IMPACTS TO A TROPICAL STREAM ECOSYSTEM IN THE MOUNTAINS OF PUERTO RICO.

Tropical ecosystems are subject to a variety of natural disturbances, with hurricanes among the most extreme. While the importance of hurricanes in structuring terrestrial environments is widely acknowledged, impacts on stream ecosystems are less understood. During 2017, Puerto Rico was impacted by two major Hurricanes (Irma and Maria, both category 4) resulting in major damage to forest and stream ecosystems. In this study, we use our ongoing research, as well as our long-term data sets (2009-2017), to assess hurricane impacts upon a second-order stream draining the El Yunque National Forest. Hurricanes significantly reduced canopy cover over the stream. Hurricanes caused a short-lived input of leaf-litter fall, 8-fold the long-term average. Organic biofilm (AFDM) and chlorophyll-a barely responded to post-hurricane increased light availability, suggesting that consumers or disturbance control primary productivity. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were severely impacted, with scrapers being favored by the limited response in algae after the hurricanes. Finally, shrimps showed only slight responses to the changes in the ecosystem. Our results highlight the dramatic effects of hurricanes on tropical streams, which serves to underline the need for long-term data to understand how stream ecosystems respond to unpredictable extreme events.

Tropical Rivers
Climate Change
Ecosystem

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Presenters/Authors

Pablo E. Gutiérrez-Fonseca (), University of Costa Rica, pabloe.gutierrezfonseca@gmail.com;