Abstract
Concepts regarding effects of recurrent natural disturbances and subsequent responses of communities are central to ecology and conservation biology. Tropical cyclones constitute major disturbances producing direct effects (damage, mortality) in many coastal communities worldwide. Subsequent reassembly involves changes in composition and abundance for which the underlying mechanisms (deterministic and stochastic processes) are still not clear, especially for mobile organisms. We examined tropical cyclone‐induced changes in composition and reassembly of entire insect communities in 16 Louisiana coastal salt marshes before and after Hurricane Isaac in 2012 and 2013. We used the Shannon index and multivariate permutational ANOVA to study insect resistance and resilience, β diversity partitioning to evaluate the importance of species replacement, and null models to disentangle the relative roles of different assembly processes over time after the tropical cyclone. The α diversity and species composition, overall and for different trophic levels, decreased immediately after the tropical cyclone; nonetheless, both then increased rapidly and returned to pre‐cyclone states within one year. Changes in species abundance, rather than species replacement, was the primary driver, accounting for most temporal dissimilarity among insect communities. Stochastic processes, which drove community composition immediately after the tropical cyclone, decreased in importance over time. Our study indicates that rapid reformation of insect communities involved sequential landscape‐level dynamics. Cyclone‐resistant life cycle stages apparently survived in some, perhaps random locations within the overall salt marsh landscape. Subsequently, stochastic patterns of immigration of mobile life cycle stages resulted in rapid reformation of local communities. Post‐cyclone direct regeneration of salt marsh insect communities resulted from low resistance, coupled with high landscape‐level resilience via re‐immigration. Our study suggests that the extent of direct regeneration of local salt marsh insect communities might change with the size of larger marsh landscapes within which they are imbedded.
Highlights
Recurrent natural disturbances affect many ecological communities
We examined tropical cyclone-induced changes in composition and reassembly of entire insect communities in 16 Louisiana coastal salt marshes before and after Hurricane Isaac in 2012 and 2013
Our study suggests that the extent of direct regeneration of local salt marsh insect communities might change with the size of larger marsh landscapes within which they are imbedded
Summary
Recurrent natural disturbances affect many ecological communities. Fundamental theories of ecology, such as succession, are based on understanding the effects on populations of species present at the time of disturbance and subsequent responses (Connell and Slatyer 1977, Platt and Connell 2003). High winds and storm surges occur annually within three large cyclone belts in most subtropical and warm-temperate regions of the world (Emanuel 2005). These storms directly damage and influence survival of individuals within populations, as well as initiate post-cyclone responses, often in altered environments (Whitmore 1974, 1989, Batista and Platt 1997, Turton and Stork 2008, Lin et al 2012, Turton 2012, Chi et al 2015, Ibanez et al 2019). Recurrent tropical cyclones produce consistent compositional and structural patterns regionally and worldwide, despite large taxonomic and evolutionary differences among organisms in the different regions experiencing these recurrent disturbances (Quigley and Platt 2003, Keppel et al 2010, Ibanez et al 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
