Documenting effects of disturbances on federal lands using NASA G-LiHT
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abstract
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Hurricanes can stimulate changes across vegetated landscapes, which otherwise demonstrate stability over decadal-century long timescales. Repeated disturbance events are likely the strongest driver of change. Disturbances that commonly occur in ENP's mangrove system clearly includes wind storms, but also includes lightning strikes, tidal action, highly reduced soil conditions, and hypersalinity. As sea-levels continue to rise, and as the rate of rise accelerates, the interaction between tidal action, disturbance events, and freshwater restoration may become more conspicuous. Tidal action is becoming more frequent and sustained along coastal and likely riverine environments in ENP (Park et al. 2017), suggesting that the interaction between sub-lethal stresses may become more severe following Hurricane Irma compared with previous storms. The area immediately east of Flamingo in ENP experienced hypersaline conditions during the summer of 2015 which triggered the death of nearly 40,000 Ha of seagrass beds, and this portion of Florida Bay is routinely more saline than adjacent areas. Mapped salinity concentrations in coastal areas have also demonstrated that the marshes east of Flamingo have higher soil salinity than surrounding areas. If medium-long term recovery from Hurricane Irma is shaped by interactions between different types of stresses, then the area east of Flamingo is likely to be where stress interactions are most readily detectable.
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