Hurricane Disturbance and Recovery: An Empirical and Simulation Study of Vegetation Dynamics in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico

摘要

I examine spatial patterns of damage and the factors that influence hurricane and other catastrophic wind event patterns, and the resulting dynamics of vegetation recovery in a subtropical wet forest following hurricane disturbance. I develop an approach to modeling disturbance dynamics in which any point in geographical space can be represented as a position in a multiple gradient space of abiotic factors; and the disturbance and recovery are quantified as movements within this gradient space.