Millions of trees in Puerto Rico damaged after Hurricane Maria, Berkeley Lab finds

According to a study released by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in March, an estimated 23 to 31 million trees were seriously damaged in the Puerto Rican forest after Hurricane Maria.

This study focuses on recent ecological damage caused by hurricanes against Puerto Rican forests, especially Hurricane Maria. According to Robinson Negrón-Juárez, a research collaborator and summary of the study, scientists used data from Landsat 8 satellites to compare the images of islands before and after Hurricane Maria.

According to Negrón-Juárez, they examined the individual pixels of these images, determined the change in non-photosynthetic vegetation in the forest, and adjusted the degree of turbulence in the forest after the hurricane.

"For each level of interference, we have determined a certain percentage of tree mortality based on a survey in the previous Mexican Gulf," says Negrón-Juárez. "So the results in Mary are very preliminary, because we are not working on site."

The first author of this study is Yanlei Feng, a PhD candidate in the geography department of the University of California at Berkeley and her correspondent is Mr. Jeffrey Chambers, a faculty scientist at the Berkeley Institute of Climate Science is.

According to co-authors, the doctoral student at Columbia University student Jazlynn Hall discovered that the overall ecosystem damage was substantial, although this study could not deal with the degree of urban damage.

Mr. Hall says by e-mail as follows. "Ecosystem damage we observe is extensive and is very serious in many places." "We are currently collecting estimates of the damage and mortality of trees on the premises.The damage of the entire ecosystem To understand the"

According to Mr. Feng, the destruction of trees may appear in various ways, such as cutting down trees, rooted trees, stripping canopy leaves. Hall added that scientists are still determining the exact range of ecological damage.

According to co-authors, Professor María Uriarte of Columbia University says that despite extensive ecosystem damage, Puerto Rico forest will recover relatively quickly.

"The difference with Puerto Rico is that the forest is often attacked by hurricanes, so species can adapt to these hurricanes," Uriarte said. "This is a very warm and floody area, so forests will recover rapidly in this special case."

According to Feng, scientists will continue to study the spatial variation of island disturbances and the causes of possible changes.

However, Hall added, that more frequent storms and ongoing climate change may make recovery of forests more difficult.

The hall said in an e-mail that forests are likely to be released from this particular hurricane. But if the hurricane becomes more frequent or more intense, there may be more work to do to restore, if the impact of climate change exacerbates disasters and subsequent situations, to help forests recover Hmm. "

On September 24, Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló estimated that the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico could exceed the loss of $ 8 billion caused by Hurricane George. Since about 80% of agricultural losses in this region are hurricanes, agricultural losses are estimated at $ 780 million. The power grid of the island was completely destroyed by the hurricane, and all 4 million residents lost electricity. Governor Rossello says it may take several months to recover power in some places, and San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz believes that in some areas power will not be supplied for four to six months. The communication network spreads throughout the island. 95% of the cellular network has been destroyed and 48 of the 78 counties on the island are completely out of service. 85% of grounding cable and telephone cable are unnecessary

Last month, Hurricane Maria landed in Puerto Rico as a category 4 hurricane, causing severe damage to the island's related infrastructure. In the weeks following the disaster, the project team collaborated with the Puerto Rican Government, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Bureau, the spectrum partners, and the International Aviation Authority to provide balloon-based Internet access to the island Has been provided. Services Thanks to their support, we are working with AT & T and T Mobile to provide emergency Internet services to the island's most affected areas.