Characterization of ten extreme disturbance events in the context of social and ecological systems

Abstract

An extreme disturbance event is one in which any of its component disturbance forces and their interactions with affected systems have dimensions and responses that exceed the known range of variation expected of those parameters. If the exposed system does not respond or exhibits a low level response to an event, the event was not extreme to the exposed system, regardless of the dimensions of its disturbance forces. Extreme disturbance events are complex and require disaggregation to improve understanding of their effects. The areas affected by extreme events and the duration of the events are related but involve many orders of magnitude in terms of area affected and duration. One way to compare events is through a common and objective unit of measure such as energy. A comparison of ten extreme events in terms of their power and total energy delivered per unit area revealed a broad range of values among them. The power of events ranged 8 orders of magnitude and the total load per unit area ranged 14 orders of magnitude. Each event had different points of interaction with exposed ecosystems. When exposed to the same extreme event, the response of social systems is different from the response of the ecological systems. Also, social systems recovered quicker to a category 3 hurricane than did ecological systems. Both social and ecological systems have the capacity to evolve, adapt, innovate, and develop novelty in response to the selective pressure of extreme events.

Effects of Extreme Disturbance Events: From Ecesis to Social–Ecological–Technological Systems

“…These expected changes have led to the use of the term 'extreme events,' or 'extreme disturbance events' as I will call them, to describe what Turner and Dale (1998) defined as 'large infrequent disturbances' (LIDs). I defined extreme disturbance events as those in which any of its component disturbance forces and their interactions with affected systems have dimensions and responses that exceed the known range of variation expected of those parameters (Lugo 2018). This definition, based on Turner and Dale's (1998) definition of LIDs, makes explicit the interaction between the external forces of the disturbance event and the response of affected ecosystem components.…”

“…Most extreme disturbance events involve more than one disturbance force and more than one interaction with different sectors of affected ecosystems, as illustrated for hurricane Hugo as it passed over the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico (Table 1). A hurricane event can involve forces associated with rainfall, wind, and ocean surges and each of these forces add complexity to the event by causing tornados, floods, and landslides, which are also complex disturbance events (Lugo 2008(Lugo , 2018. Thus, the effects of rainfall involve its mechanical effects on surfaces, its chemical potential in relation to solutes on downstream water bodies, and its influence on hydroperiods, soil stability, and gas exchange of soil organisms, to name a few.…”

“…4. The longer-term temporal effects of ex- Odum (1996) and Lugo (2018). Empty cells mean data are not available.…”

Restoration ecology in the Anthropocene: learning from responses of tropical forests to extreme disturbance events

“…In the following section, I present two examples of well-studied lowland tropical dry forests (e.g. Alvarez-Yépiz et al 2008, 2018Bojórquez et al 2019), subjected to similar land-use change but exposed to different recent climatic disturbances, to demonstrate how we could capitalize on their responses to extreme events to facilitate their restoration.…”

Diverse water quality responses to extreme climate events: an introduction

“…In popular media, extreme climate events are often associated with a single, powerful driver-either short-term high energy events such as tropical cyclones (Lugo 2018;Paerl et al 2018;Vidon et al 2018) (Fig. 1), or prolonged changes in climatic conditions such as drought (Humphries and Baldwin 2003), warming or changes in atmospheric deposition (Groffman et al 2018;Salisbury and Jönsson 2018).…”