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Quantifying Disturbance and Recovery in Estuaries: Tropical Cyclones and High-Frequency Measures of Oxygen and Salinity

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Abstract

Tropical cyclones impact estuaries via a variety of mechanisms including storm surge, flooding from precipitation, high winds, and strong wave action. Prior studies have documented disturbances caused by tropical cyclones, including prolonged periods of depressed salinity from high freshwater discharge and increased or decreased dissolved oxygen concentrations from increased loading of organic matter and/or nutrients. However, most studies of disturbance and recovery in estuaries have been limited to one or a few locations or storm events, limiting generalizations about tropical cyclone impacts and characteristic patterns of ecosystem response and recovery. We analyzed responses to 59 tropical cyclones across 19 estuaries in the eastern USA by applying a new method for detecting disturbance and recovery to long-term and high-frequency measurements of salinity and dissolved oxygen from NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System. We quantified disturbance occurrence, timing, recovery time, and severity. Salinity disturbances generally started earlier and lasted longer than dissolved oxygen disturbances. Estuaries usually recovered within days, but some disturbances lasted weeks or months. Recovery time was positively correlated with disturbance severity for both variables. Tropical cyclone properties (especially precipitation) and location characteristics were both related to disturbance characteristics. Our findings demonstrate the power of high-frequency, long-term, and cross-system data, when combined with appropriate statistical methods, for analyzing hurricanes across many estuaries to quantify disturbances. Estuaries are resilient to hurricanes for the variables and time periods considered. However, persistent impacts can potentially damage resources provided by estuaries, eroding future resilience if hurricanes become more frequent and severe.

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Data Availability

All data used in this study are from publicly available sources. NERRS station data were obtained from the Centralized Data Management Office (http://www.nerrsdata.org/). TC storm tracks and TC wind data were obtained from the hurricane exposure R package and PRISM precipitation data were obtained using the prism R package, both available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (https://cran.r-project.org/).

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Funding

This work was supported by a Rapid Response Grant from the University of Virginia Environmental Resilience Institute as well as high-performance computing resources provided by University of Virginia Research Computing’s Rivanna system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    C. D. Buelo, J. A. Walter, M. L. Pace, D. T. Ha & S. J. Tassone

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA

    A. F. Besterman

  3. Center for Watershed Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    J. A. Walter

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  1. C. D. Buelo
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  2. A. F. Besterman
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  3. J. A. Walter
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  4. M. L. Pace
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Correspondence to C. D. Buelo.

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Communicated by Michael Wetz

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Buelo, C.D., Besterman, A.F., Walter, J.A. et al. Quantifying Disturbance and Recovery in Estuaries: Tropical Cyclones and High-Frequency Measures of Oxygen and Salinity. Estuaries and Coasts 47, 18–31 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-023-01255-1

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