Tropical cyclones facilitate recovery of forest leaf area from dry spells in East Asia

[摘要] Forests disturbance by tropical cyclones is mostlydocumented by field studies of exceptionally strong cyclones andsatellite-based approaches attributing decreases in leaf area. By startingtheir analysis from the observed damage, these studies are biased and may,therefore, limit our understanding of the impact of cyclones in general.This study overcomes such biases by jointly analyzing the cyclone tracks,climate reanalysis, and changes in satellite-based leaf area following thepassage of 140  ±  41 cyclones. Sixty days following their passage,18  ±  8 % of the cyclones resulted in a decrease and 48  ±  18 % showed no change in leaf area compared to nearby forest outside the stormtrack. For a surprising 34  ±  7 % of the cyclones, an increase in leafarea was observed. Cyclones resulting in higher leaf area in their affectedcompared to their reference area coincided with an atmospheric pressuredipole steering the cyclone towards a region experiencing a dry spell causedby the same dipole. When the dipole was present, the destructive power ofcyclones was offset by their abundant precipitation enabling forest canopiesin the affected area to recover faster from the dry spell than canopies inthe reference area. This study documents previously undocumented widespread antagonist interactions on forest leaf area between tropical cyclones anddroughts.

[学科分类] 大气科学