This study examined landscape and regional impacts of the 1938 Hurricane in New England and Hurricane Hugo in Puerto Rico, with a focus on the Harvard Forest and the Luquillo Expermental Forest.
Hurricane impacts to tropical and temperate forest landscapes.
The complex patterns of damage created in forests by hurricane winds result from the interaction of meteorological, physiographic, and biotic factors on a range of spatial scales. To improve our understanding of these factors and of the role of catastrophic hurricane wind as a disturbance process, we take an integrative approach. Actual damage to forest stands is assessed through analysis of remotely sensed, historical, and field data. In both cases patterns of damage on a regional scale were found to agree with the predicted distribution of peak wind gust velocities. On a landscape scale there was also good agreement between patterns of forest damage and predicted exposure in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico and the town of Petersham, Massachusetts.