Hostname: page-component-669899f699-2mbcq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-29T03:11:29.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hurricane Hugo: damage to a tropical rain forest in Puerto Rico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Khadga Basnet ,
Gene E. Likens ,
F. N. Scatena  and
Ariel E. Lugo
Khadga Basnet
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, The Mew York Botanical Garden, Millbrook, Ny 12545 Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854
Gene E. Likens
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecosystem Studies, The Mew York Botanical Garden, Millbrook, Ny 12545
F. N. Scatena
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras, PR 00928
Ariel E. Lugo
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras, PR 00928
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hurricane Hugo of September 1989 caused severe damage to the rain forest in the north-rust corner of Puerto Rico. We assessed the severity of damage distributed in space, species, and size-classes of trees in the Bisley Watersheds of the Luquillo Experimental Forest. We analyzed pie- and post-hurricane data for vegetation from transects established in 1987 and 1988. The severity of damage was significantly greater in valleys than on ridges and slopes. All the species except Dacryodes excelsa, Sloanea berteriana, and Guarea guidonia showed 100% severe damage. Large trees (> 70 cm DBH) were highly susceptible to hurricane damage, but there was no clear pattern in the small size-classes. D. excelsa (tabonuco) was the most resistant to damage by the hurricane. Tabonuco which has extensive root-grafts and root anchorage to bedrock and subsurficial rocks, apparently can survive frequent hurricanes and continue as a dominant species in this montane tropical rain forest. The high frequency of hurricanes, which can override other ecological and topographic factors, may largely determine the overall spatial pattern of species in this rain forest.

Keywords

disturbancedominant speciesHurricane HugoPuerto Ricotabonucotropical lain forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 47 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

LITERATURE CITED

Basnet, K. 1989. Distribution of Tabonuco (Dacryodes excelsa) in Bisley Watersheds of Luquillo Experimental Eorest, Puerto Rico. Bulletin of Ecological Society of America 70:59.Google Scholar
Basnet, K. 1990. Studies of ecological and geological factors controlling the pattern of Tabonuco Forests in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. New Jersey.Google Scholar
Bormann, F. H. & Likens, G. E. 1979a. Pattern and process in a forested ecosystem. Springer-Yerlag. New-York. 253 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bormann, F. H. & Likens, G. E. 1979b. Catastrophic disturbance and the steady state in northern hardwood forests. American Scientist 67:660–669.Google Scholar
Briscoe, C. B. & Wadsworth, F. H. 1970. Stand structure and yield in the tabonuco forest of Puerto Rico. Pp. B79–89 in Odum, H. T. & Pigeon, R. F. (eds). A tropical rain forest. National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA.Google Scholar
Brown, S., Lugo, A. E., Silander, S. & Liegel, L. 1983. Research history and opportunities in the Luquillo Experimental Forest. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report So–44. Southern Forest Experiment Station, New Orleans, LA.128 pp.Google Scholar
Crow, T. R. 1980. A rain forest chronicle: a thirty year record of change in structure and composition at El Verde, Puerto Rico. Biotropica 12:42–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Day, W. R. 1950. The soil conditions which determine windthrow in forests. Forestry 23:90–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, C. P., Guntenspergen, G. R. & Dorney, J. R. 1983. Catastrophic wind disturbance in an old growth hemlock-hardwood forest, Wisconsin. Canadian Journal of Botany 61:211217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartshorn, G. S. 1978. Tree fall and forest dynamics. Pp. 617–638 in Tomlinson, P. & Zimmerman, M. (eds). Tropical trees as living systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Holdridge, L. R. 1967. Life zone ecology. Tropical Science Center, San Jose, Costa Rica. 206 pp.Google Scholar
Hubert, E. E. 1918. Fungi as contributory causes of windfall in the northwest. Journal of Forestry 16:696–714.Google Scholar
Jane, G. T. 1986. Wind damage as an ecological process in mountain beech forests of Canterbury, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 9:25–39.Google Scholar
Lugo, A. E. 1980. Mangrove ecosystems: Successional or steady state? Biotropica 12:65–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugo, A. E., Applefield, M., Pool, D. J. & McDonald, R. B. 1983. The impact of Hurricane David on the forests of Dominica. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 13:201–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugo, A. E. & Battle, C. R. 1987. Leaf production, growth rate, and age oi the palm Presloea montana in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 3:151–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugo, A. E., Sell, M. & Snedaker, S. C. 1976. Mangrove ecosystem analysis. Pp. 113–145 in Patten, B. C. (ed.). System analysis and simulation ecology. Vol. 4. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odum, H. T. & Pigeon, R. F. 1970. A tropical rainforest. National Technical Information Service. Springfield, Virginia, USA.Google Scholar
Pickett, S. T. A. & White, P. S. 1985. The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press. Inc. Orlando, Florida. 472 pp.Google Scholar
Putz, F. E., Coley, P. D., Lu, K., Montalvo, A. & Aiello, A. 1983. Uprooting and snapping of trees: structural determinants and ecological consequences. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 13:1011–1020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saliva, L. A. 1972. Historia de los temporales de Puerto Rico y las Antillas, 1492 a 1970. Editorial Edil, Inc. UPR, Rio Piedras, PR. 385 pp.Google Scholar
Scatena, F. N. 1989. An introduction to the physiography and history of the Bisley Experimental Watersheds in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report. SO–72. Southern Forest Experiment Station, New Orleans, LA. 21 pp.Google Scholar
Schaetzl, R. J., Johnson, D. L., Burns, S. F. & Small, T. W. 1989. Tree uprooting: review of terminology, process, and environmental implications. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 19:1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokal, R. R. & Rohlf, F. J. 1981. Biometry. Second edition.Freeman, San Fransisco, California, USA.Google Scholar
Wadsworth, F. H. 1951. Forest management in the Luquillo mountains. L Setting. Caribbean Forester 12:114–124.Google Scholar
Wadsworth, F. H. 1953. New observation of tree growth in Tabonuco Forest. Caribbean Forester 14:106–111.Google Scholar
Wadsworth, F. H. 1970. Review of past research in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Pp. B33–B46 in Odum, H. T. & Pigeon, R. F. (eds). A tropical rain forest. National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia, USA.Google Scholar
Wadsworth, F. H. & Englerth, G. H. 1959. Effect of the 1956 hurricane on forests in Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 20:38–51.Google Scholar
Weaver, P. L. 1986. Hurricane damage and recovery in the montane forests of the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Caribbean Journal of Science 22:53–70.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. 1974. Change with time and role of cyclones in tropical rain forest on Kolombangara Solomon Islands. Commonwealth Forestry Institute Paper Mo. 46. Oxford University.Google Scholar