Reed David, Chavez Selena, Castañeda-Moya Edward, Oberbauer Steven F, Troxler Tiffany, Malone Sparkle
Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA.
Glob Chang Biol. 2025 Mar;31(3):e70124. doi: 10.1111/gcb.70124.
Mangrove forests are typically considered resilient to natural disturbances, likely caused by the evolutionary adaptation of species-specific traits. These ecosystems play a vital role in the global carbon cycle and are responsible for an outsized contribution to carbon burial and enhanced sedimentation rates. Using eddy covariance data from two coastal mangrove forests in the Florida Coastal Everglades, we evaluated the impact hurricanes have on mangrove forest structure and function by measuring recovery to pre-disturbance conditions following Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Irma in 2017. We determined the "recovery debt," the deficit in ecosystem structure and function following a disturbance, using the leaf area index (LAI) and the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide (CO). Calculated as the cumulative deviation from pre-disturbance conditions, the recovery debt incorporated the recapture of all the carbon lost due to the disturbance. In Everglades mangrove forests, LAI returned to pre-disturbance levels within a year, and ecosystem respiration and maximum photosynthetic rates took much longer, resulting in an initial recovery debt of 178 g C m at the tall forest with limited impacts at the scrub forest. At the landscape scale, the initial recovery debt was 0.40 Mt C, and in most coastal mangrove forests, all lost carbon was recovered within just 4 years. While high-intensity storms could have prolonged impacts on the structure of subtropical forests, fast canopy recovery suggests these ecosystems will remain strong carbon sinks.
红树林通常被认为对自然干扰具有恢复力，这可能是由物种特异性性状的进化适应造成的。这些生态系统在全球碳循环中发挥着至关重要的作用，对碳埋藏和提高沉积速率做出了巨大贡献。利用佛罗里达海岸大沼泽地两个沿海红树林的涡度协方差数据，我们通过测量2005年威尔玛飓风和2017年艾尔玛飓风过后恢复到干扰前状况的情况，评估了飓风对红树林结构和功能的影响。我们使用叶面积指数（LAI）和二氧化碳（CO₂）的净生态系统交换量（NEE）确定了“恢复债务”，即干扰后生态系统结构和功能的亏缺。恢复债务以与干扰前状况的累积偏差来计算，纳入了因干扰而损失的所有碳的重新获取量。在大沼泽地的红树林中，叶面积指数在一年内恢复到干扰前水平，而生态系统呼吸和最大光合速率恢复所需时间长得多，导致高大森林的初始恢复债务为178克碳/平方米，对矮林的影响有限。在景观尺度上，初始恢复债务为0.40百万吨碳，并且在大多数沿海红树林中，所有损失的碳在短短4年内就得以恢复。虽然高强度风暴可能会对亚热带森林的结构产生长期影响，但树冠的快速恢复表明这些生态系统仍将是强大的碳汇。
