Summary of the Response of Animal Populations to Hurricanes in the Caribbean

Abstract

THE IMPACT OF A HURRICANE on a terrestrial environment results in long-lasting effects on the biota of that environment. Hurricanes not only rearrange the structure of the vegetation, they also affect many of the basic processes that influence animal population size and composition. Microenvironment, rainfall patterns, nutrient cycling, litter fall, and the phenology of flowering and fruiting are just some aspects of terrestrial ecosystems important to animals that are disrupted by an intense hurricane. In addition, secondary effects of hurricanes assert themselves via interactions among species within the altered community. The animal community may continue to change through invasions and local extinctions as the vegetation varies through successional time. The response of animal populations to disturbance provides a key to understanding the structure of communities in terrestrial ecosystems that are chronically disrupted. The lack of long-term data and the variability in storm frequency and intensity within the hurricane belt make interpretation of the effects of hurricanes difficult. The preceding eight papers report the effects of three different storms (Joan, Gilbert, and Hugo) on animal populations in two insular (Puerto Rico and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands) and two continental (Mexico and Nicaragua) habitats. Four of these papers deal with birds and, combined with data from sites in Jamaica (Wunderle et al., in press), facilitate a comparison of the effects of hurricanes on a single taxon in a variety of locales. The other papers present data for a variety of taxa and permit analysis of the effects of a single hurricane (Hugo) on the more abundant species in a subtropical wet forest community in Puerto Rico (Table 1). The common thread in these studies concerns the evaluation of the impact of the storm on animal populations.