Resistance and resilience of social–ecological systems to recurrent typhoon disturbance on a subtropical island: Taiwan

Abstract

Tropical cyclones (TCs) have major effects on ecological and social systems. However, studies integrating the effects of TCs on both social and ecological systems are rare, especially in the northwest Pacific, where the frequency of TCs (locally named typhoons) is the highest in the world. We synthesized studies of effects of recurrent typhoons on social and ecological systems in Taiwan over the last several decades. Many responses to TCs are comparable between social and ecological systems. High forest ecosystem resistance, evident from tree mortality below 2% even following multiple strong typhoons, is comparable with resistance of social systems, including the only 4% destruction of river embankments following a typhoon that brought nearly 3000 mm rainfall in three days. High resilience as reflected by quick returns of leaf area index, mostly in one year, and streamwater chemistry, one to several weeks to pre‐typhoon levels of ecosystems, are comparable to quick repair of the power grid within one to several days and returns of vegetable price within several weeks to pre‐typhoon levels of the social systems. Landslides associated with intense typhoons have buried mountain villages and transported large quantities of woody debris to the coast, affecting the coastal plains and reefs, illustrating a ridge‐to‐reef link between ecological and societal systems. Metrics of both social and ecological function showed large fluctuations in response to typhoons but quickly returned to pre‐disturbance levels, except when multiple intense typhoons occurred within a single season. Our synthesis illustrates that the social–ecological systems in Taiwan are highly dynamic and responsive to frequent typhoon disturbance, with extraordinarily high resistance and resilience. For ecosystems, the efficient responsiveness results from the selective force of TCs on ecosystem structure and processes. For social systems, it is the result of the effects of TCs on planning and decision making by individuals (e.g., farmers), management sectors, and ultimately the government. In regions with frequent TCs, the social–ecological systems are inevitably highly dynamic and rapid responses are fundamental to system resistance and resilience which in turn is key to maintaining structure and function of the social–ecological systems.

The Holocene paleo-environmental history of the Gangkou River estuary, Hengchun Peninsula, Taiwan

“…The area is strongly influenced by the northeastern winter monsoon and by typhoons in the summer, because it is located on the eastern coast of the Hengchun Peninsula. Since 1981, 11 typhoons have tracked through southernmost Taiwan from East to West, following the third most frequent typhoon pathway identified by Chang et al (2018) based on data from the Typhoon Database of the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan (http://rdc28.cwb. gov.tw/; date last accessed 2018.05.03).…”

Elliptical Structures of Gravity Waves Produced by Typhoon Soudelor in 2015 near Taiwan

“…It also caused a north-west deflection after 06:00 UTC ( Figure 1a). About 31% of the landfall typhoon pathways over Taiwan from 1981 to 2015 were similar to the one of TC Soudelor [54].…”

Integrating Subjective and Objective Dimensions of Resilience in Fire-Prone Landscapes

“…Although progress has been made in assessing the resilience of ecological attributes to wildfires (e.g., Lehmann et al 2014, Smit et al 2016), understanding ecological responses to disturbance alone is not enough: SES resilience is a function of ecological and human dynamics. As SES science is still developing, there is much to learn about how human and natural systems are coupled and respond to disturbances (Carpenter et al 2012, Moritz et al 2014, Mockrin et al 2015, Wigtil et al 2016, Chang et al 2018). Furthermore, understanding the resilience of SESs inherently involves dynamics over multiple scales; although we briefly touch on this issue (figure 3), significant challenges arise when considering varying spatial or temporal scales.…”