Tropical Cyclones Disrupt Nutrient Cycling in the Philippines in a Big Way

Tropical cyclones apparently disrupt nutrient cycling in a big way. Scientists have found that island nations in the western Pacific region may suffer more than usual from these massive storms.

"Island nations in the western Pacific region are subjected to more tropical cyclones than anywhere else worldwide," said Thomas Marler, one of the researchers, in a news release. "And the greatest destructive forces of tropical cyclones occurs on coastal zone habitats."

In this latest study, the researchers attempted to more fully understand the destructive forces of the typhoon by looking at the influence on chemical cycling among the interacting biological and geological systems. Their research focused on several islands in the eastern Visayan region of the Philippines where the typhoon first made landfall on 8 November 2013. The study included several habitats that contained different soil traits but supported a common plant species, Cycas nitida.

The new study shows several ways in which a tropical cyclone disrupts nutrient flow through the ecosystem. For example, the defoliation of green leaves may be one of the most common responses of forests to tropical cyclone damage. Because these leaves were unable to proceed through the normal aging process before being dislodged from the trees, nutritional status of the plants temporarily decreases and forest floor nutritional deposits temporarily increase. Additionally, many plant leaves were partially desiccated by cyclone-force winds, but not fully killed. In response, nutrients were locked up in the damaged portions of these leaves forcing them to stay suspended in tree canopies for extended periods of time instead of falling with customary litterfall to enter the soil nutrient cycling process.

Tropical cyclones are called typhoons in the western Pacific and hurricanes in the Atlantic basin. They are an example of large-scale disturbances. This case study, in particular, provides an example of these phenomena from the Philippine islands.

The findings are published in the Journal of Geography & Natural Disasters.

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