Hurricane Impacts on Avian Populations in Tropical Ecosystems
Summary
Tropical cyclones impose a spectrum of pressures on avian communities, from immediate habitat destruction through canopy loss and fragmentation to longer-term shifts in species composition and ecosystem functioning. Strong hurricanes strip foliage, disrupt nesting sites and alter food availability, triggering mortality, displacement and changes in foraging behaviour. While species richness may rebound within a few years, community evenness and β diversity often require nearly a decade to stabilise, reflecting asynchronous recovery trajectories among resident and migratory species. Dietary guilds exhibit differential sensitivity, with frugivores and specialists typically more affected than granivores and generalists. Repeated storm encounters can erode population resilience, heighten local extirpation risk for forest-dependent and endemic birds, and drive the emergence of transient assemblages dominated by disturbance-tolerant taxa. These patterns underscore the need for long-term monitoring, species-specific demographic modelling and adaptive management to safeguard avian diversity in an era of increasing cyclone intensity and frequency driven by climate change.
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Hurricane Impacts on Avian Populations in Tropical Ecosystems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in hurricane impacts on avian populations in tropical ecosystems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Community evenness: Distribution of individuals among species, reflecting how equal abundances are within a community.
β diversity: Measure of change in species composition between temporal or spatial communities.
Occupancy: Proportion of survey sites where a given species is present, used to infer distribution and habitat use.
Specialist vs generalist: Specialist species have narrow ecological niches or dietary requirements, whereas generalists exploit a broader range of resources.
Category 4 hurricane: Cyclonic event with sustained wind speeds of 209–251 km/h on the Saffir–Simpson scale, causing catastrophic damage.
References
- Long-term assessment of resilience of avian assemblages following a major hurricane. Biological Conservation (2024).
- Puerto Rico plain pigeon, scaly-naped pigeon and red-tailed hawk: population dynamics and association patterns before and after hurricanes. Endangered Species Research (2022).
- Distribution and habitat requirements of the Bahama Warbler Setophaga flavescens on Grand Bahama in 2018. Bird Conservation International (2023).
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