Hurricanes bring powerful winds and heavy rains to South Florida on a seasonal basis, where this natural force drives change within the affected ecosystems. However, the exact relationship between hurricanes and the extent their impacts have on ecosystems is not fully understood. This study sought to delve deeper into this matter by answering the question: How do South Florida’s hardwood hammocks and pine rocklands differ in how hurricanes affect their canopy and forest structures? The hardwood hammock and a pine rockland study sites were within half a mile of each other and near Homestead, where Hurricane Irma struck the area in mid-September of 2017 as a Category 1. This study was accomplished by measuring the dimensions of each tree’s crown before and after the hurricane. The direction each crown was oriented towards was also measured before and after the hurricane. Subsequently, damage to each habitat was assessed by measuring the amount of broken branches, broken main stems, defoliation, and mortality.
Results/Conclusions
Thorough analysis and comparison of the data yielded straightforward results. In the hardwood hammock site, the comparison of before versus after crown dimensions revealed that the hurricane played a significant role in altering its canopy structure. Meanwhile, the pine rockland data portrayed that its canopy structure was largely unchanged by the hurricane. The hammock’s crown directionality measurements also changed substantially but the crowns’ redirection seemed to be random, not aligning with the hurricane’s wind direction. The pine rockland’s crown directionality seemed to be primarily unchanged by the hurricane. Assessing the damage after the hurricane revealed that the hardwood hammock trees received a considerable amount of defoliation, branch breakage, some of which even had their main stem broken off, and handful of trees were knocked down. The Pine rockland had a minimal amount of branch breakage and defoliation, but no serious damage or mortality. The results led to the conclusion that even Category 1 hurricanes, such as Irma, can bring significant changes to canopy structure and serious damage to hardwood hammocks in South Florida. Comparably, pine rocklands seem to handle the stresses much better than hardwood hammocks, with their canopy structure mostly unchanged and very little damage to the habitat.