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Structural Impacts, Carbon Losses, and Regeneration in Mangrove Wetlands after Two Hurricanes on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

  • Wetlands and Climate Change
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Abstract

Hurricanes Irma and Maria ravaged the mangroves of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 2017. Basal area losses were large (63–100%) and storm losses of carbon associated with aboveground biomass amounted to 11.9–43.5 Mg C/ha. Carbon biomass of dead standing trees increased 8.1–18.3 Mg C/ha among sites, and carbon in coarse woody debris on the forest floor increased 1.9–18.2 Mg C/ha, with effects varying by mangrove typology. While St. John has only ~45 ha of mangroves, they exist as isolated basins, salt ponds, and fringe mangroves; the latter sometimes support diverse marine communities. Salt pond and fringe mangroves had proportionately more organic carbon (46.3 Mg C/ha) than inorganic carbon (1.1 Mg C/ha) in soils than isolated basins. Soil organic carbon was also appreciable in isolated basins (30.8 Mg C/ha) but was matched by inorganic C (36.7 Mg C/ha), possibly due to adjacent land use history (e.g., road construction), previous storm overwash, or geomorphology. Soil nitrogen stocks were low across all typologies. Mangroves had limited regeneration 26 months after the storms, and recovery on St. John may be hindered by pre-storm hydrologic change in some stands, and potential genetic bottlenecks and lack of propagule sources for expedient recovery in all stands.

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Acknowledgements

Data that support the findings of this study are openly available in From et al. (2020). This study was authorized by a Scientific Research and Collecting Permit issued by the U.S. National Park Service (VIIS-2018-SCI-0020), and exportation of soils from St. John was authorized by a permit issued by the Government of the Virgin Islands, Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife (Indigenous Species Research Export Permit DFW18091J). We thank Andre Rovai (Louisiana State University) for assistance with acid fumigation procedures to remove inorganic C from soils. We thank Rebecca F. Moss (USGS) for managing sample through-put and analyzing soils, Lianne C. Ball for field assistance, students and staff of Gifft Hill School (especially Melissa B. Wilson) along with Todd Sampsell and Tonia Lovejoy (Friends of Virgin Islands National Park) for their astute observations about mangrove propagule production, Darren J. Johnson (Cherokee Nation Technologies) for conducting statistical analyses reported here-in, and Laura Feher and Andre Rovai for providing helpful comments on a previous manuscript draft. This paper is contribution no. 213 from the Center for Marine & Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands, who thank the Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI EPSCoR) for support. This research was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey Environments Program, LandCarbon Program, and Climate Research and Development Program. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Lafayette, LA, 70506, USA

    Ken W. Krauss, Andrew S. From & Robert C. Dobbs

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, St. John, VI, 00830, USA

    Caroline S. Rogers

  3. U.S. National Park Service, South Florida/Caribbean Inventory and Monitoring Network, Palmetto Bay, FL, 33157, USA

    Kevin R. T. Whelan

  4. Center for Marine & Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, VI, 00802, USA

    Kristin W. Grimes

  5. U.S. National Park Service, Virgin Islands National Park and Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, St. John, VI, 00830, USA

    Thomas Kelley

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  1. Ken W. Krauss
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Correspondence to Ken W. Krauss.

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Krauss, K.W., From, A.S., Rogers, C.S. et al. Structural Impacts, Carbon Losses, and Regeneration in Mangrove Wetlands after Two Hurricanes on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Wetlands 40, 2397–2412 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01313-5

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