How do hurricanes affect land?
Written By: Jalen Fernandez
In addition to impacting people, homes, towns, and cities, hurricanes also have an intense effect on the environment, especially coastal habitats. Hurricanes generate strong winds that can completely remove leaves from forest canopies and cause dramatic changes in structure in wooded ecosystems. Animals can either be killed by hurricanes or impacted indirectly through changes in habitat and food availability caused by high winds, storm surge, and rainfall. Species can be dramatically impacted, such as the Puerto Rican Parrot , whose population was reduced to half its original size after the passage of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Hurricane Gilbert pushed the Cozumel Thrasher, found only on Mexico’s Isla Cozumel, to the edge of extinction in 1988. In addition to impacting animals, storm surge and dangerous waves can move large amounts of sand and ultimately reshape the coastal landscape. Hurricanes such as Ivan , Katrina and Rita , and Gustav and Ike have led to shoreline position changes of about 100 m in some regions. The loss of land from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita alone was estimated to be about 73 square miles.
By changing environmental conditions in coastal habitats, hurricanes cause a small waterfall of direct and indirect ecological responses that range from immediate to long-term. In terms of environmental effects, no two hurricanes are alike. Individual characteristics, such as the storm’s forward speed, size, intensity, and amount of precipitation, play a large role in the type and temporal extent of a hurricane’s impact. Depending on many of these factors, even tropical storms can cause severe damage to property and natural resources.
By changing environmental conditions in coastal habitats, hurricanes cause a small waterfall of direct and indirect ecological responses that range from immediate to long-term. In terms of environmental effects, no two hurricanes are alike. Individual characteristics, such as the storm’s forward speed, size, intensity, and amount of precipitation, play a large role in the type and temporal extent of a hurricane’s impact. Depending on many of these factors, even tropical storms can cause severe damage to property and natural resources.