The effect of hurricanes on Puerto Rico’s dry forests

Caribbean tropical forests are subject to hurricane impacts of great variability. In addition to natural storm incongruity, climate change can alter storm formation, duration, frequency, and intensity. Scientists assessed the impacts of storms of different intensities and frequencies on tropical dry forests. This is the first attempt to model hurricane effects for dry forests in Puerto Rico—a unique, overlooked, and threatened biome. The results revealed that more frequent storms (which remained at historical intensity levels) led these forests with productive, leafy trees to switch from a carbon source to a carbon sink.