Impact details: turbidity and sediment transport

impact chain for tropical coastal areas / storms (click nodes to view details):
selected case study results:
Case study reference
Spatial context
Impact description (case study)
Case study recommendations
Rodriguez, R., Webb, R., & Bush, D. (1994). Another look at the impact of Hurricane Hugo on the shelf and coastal resources of Puerto Rico, USA. Journal of Coastal Research, 278-296. Central America/ Caribbean: Puerto Rico Tens of square kilometres of highly productive seagrass meadows were destroyed by the formation of large sediment "blowouts." -
Fourqurean, J. W., & Rutten, L. M. (2004). The impact of hurricane Georges on soft-bottom, back reef communities: site-and species-specific effects in South Florida seagrass beds. Bulletin of Marine Science, 75(2), 239-257. North America: USA The passage of Hurricane Georges on September 25, 1998 caused an immediate loss of 3% of the density of T. testudinum, compared to 19% of the S. filiforme and 24% of the calcareous green algae. Areas that had little to moderate sediment deposition recovered from the storm within 1 year, while the one buried by 50 cm of sediment and the two areas that experienced substantial erosion showed very little recovery in the following 3 years after the storm. Early colonizers to these severely disturbed sites were calcareous green algae. Hurricanes may increase benthic macrophyte diversity by creating disturbed patches with the landscape, but moderate storm disturbance may actually reduce macrophyte diversity by removing the early successional species from mixed-species seagrass beds. -
Van Tussenbroek, B. (1994). The impact of hurricane Gilbert on the vegetative development of Thalassia testudinum in Puerto Morelos coral reef lagoon, Mexico: a retrospective study. Botanica Marina, 37(5), 421-428. Central America/ Caribbean: Mexico The impact of Hurricane Gilbert (September 1988) on Thalassia testudinum was assessed in the Puerto Morelos coral reef lagoon. At two back-reef stations and one mid-lagoon station, population/age distributions corresponded with those of undisturbed ones, suggesting that the hurricane had not left any lasting traces on vegetative growth. At the other mid-lagoon and coastal stations, T. testudinum plants had disappeared from the populations, which could be deduced from a decrease in the number of pre-hurricane short-shoots. These affected populations showed either a decrease or an increase in short-shoot internode distance shortly after the hurricane. This suggests that either sediment had been removed or accumulated at the stations of the affected populations. However, at all stations, short-shoots older than the time lapsed since the hurricane were reported, indicating that at none of the studied areas T. testudinum was wiped out completely. -
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