The impacts of hurricane disturbance and climate variability on carbon dynamics in a coastal forested wetland in South Carolina of USA were simulated using the Forest-DNDC model with a spatially explicit approach. The model was validated using the measured biomass before and after Hurricane Hugo and the biomass inventories in 2006 and 2007, showed that the ForestDNDC model was applicable for es...

We investigated acclimation responses of seedlings and saplings of the pioneer species Cecropia schreberiana Miq. and three non-pioneer species, Dacryodes excelsa Vahl, Prestoea acuminata (Willdenow) H.E. Moore var. montana (Graham) Henderson and Galeano, and Sloanea berteriana Choisy ex DC, following a hurricane disturbance in a lower montane wet forest in Puerto Rico. Measurements were made, ...

The impact that natural disasters have on crime is not well understood. In general, it is assumed that crime declines shortly after the disaster and slowly increases to pre-disaster levels over time. However, this assumption is not always confirmed by the few empirical studies that have been conducted to date. In this paper we analyze the impacts that Hurricane Rita, and for the purpose of comp...

Just before a hurricane is predicted to strike an urban area, millions of people evacuate from impact zones to safer regions. This paper provides a mass-evacuation strategy using public transportation before the strike of a hurricane. The assumptions made are that the evacuation zones, shelter locations, and the time of strike of the hurricane are pre-determined. The evacuation operations comme...

We analyzed population dynamics and changes in species diversity and composition of saplings (tree or shrub stems >50 cm in height and < 1 cm diameter at breast height) during an interval lasting from 5 years before the 1996 Hurricane Fran to 5 years post-hurricane through use of permanent transects where individual sapling stems were censused annually. The study site was the Duke Forest, locat...

Hurricanes cause dramatic changes to forests by opening the canopy and depositing debris onto forest floor. How invasive rodent populations respond hurricanes is not well understood, but shifts in abundance foraging may result from scarce fruit seed resources that follow hurricanes. We conducted studies a wet tropical Puerto Rico better understand how experimental (canopy trimming experiment) n...

Observations of pre-1950 tropical cyclones are sparse due to observational limitations; therefore, the hurricane database HURDAT2 (1851-present) maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration may be incomplete. Here we provide additional documentation for HURDAT2 from historical United States Army fort records (1820-1915) and other archived documents for 28 landfalling tropic...