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- Author or Editor: Robin A. Harrington x
- HortScience x
Two studies were established in upland native forest of northwestern Kauai before Hurricane Iniki (Sept. 1992). One study was a gradient study in Acacia koa forest in the leeward rain shadow and the second study was a replicated fertilization experiment in mesic Metrosideros polymorpha forest. Both studies escaped devastation by high-intensity microbursts. Removal of LAI (from 3% to 80%) was proportional to pre-hurricane LAI, suggesting that resistance to damage was higher in low LAI, low-productivity sites. LAI recovered to prehurricane levels within 2 years, except in plots with major limb and stem loss. In the Acacia forest, damage to overstory trees was less than to understory trees, whereas in Metrosideros forest, larger trees were more damaged than smaller trees. During 2 years of recovery, both forests lost LAI in winter storms nearly equivalent to the hurricane damage. Disturbance is more frequent than previously known, which suggests that chronic disturbance needs to be better understood as a force regulating ecosystem structure and function. In both studies, the relative rate of recovery was faster in the more productive but more disturbed plots, suggesting that ecosystem resistance and resilience were traded off. These results have application to land use planning, agroforestry systems management, and other perennial crop management decisions following damage by a tropical cyclone.