Sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast is accelerating at a faster rate than in many other regions globally
A newly published research paper led by William Paterson University environmental science professor Nicole Davi finds that coastal forests demonstrate incredible resiliency following major hurricane events, but these forests are increasingly at risk from storm damage and surges and continued sea-level rise.
Published in the journal Global and Planetary Change, the paper looks at the impact of major hurricanes (category 2 through 5) on three coastal oak forests—Montauk and Mashomack, New York and Newport, Rhode Island—between 1858 and 2012. The researchers used several tree-ring parameters—total ring width, earlywood (the parts of the wood that are formed in the spring), and latewood (the parts of the wood that are formed later in the growing season)—along with wood anatomy (cellular detail) to better pinpoint hurricane impacts on tree growth.
Davi, who serves as lead researcher on the project, and her collaborators, including Wiliam Paterson postdoctoral researcher Caroline Leland, found a significant reduction in tree-ring growth the year following a hurricane. Yet, Davi says, “One thing that we found is that these trees are able to recover quite quickly, within two years of the storm, so they are remarkably resilient. This information could inform foresters or other decision makers when it comes to forest conservation and restoration initiatives.”
However, Davi adds, these forests are also vulnerable to sea level rise, noting that sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast is accelerating at a faster rate than in many other regions globally. “These forests are highly vulnerable ecosystems, which are increasingly marked by stands of dead or dying trees,” she says. This includes maritime forests in many New Jersey coastal areas.
“Given the critical role these forests play in protecting densely populated communities – by buffering wind, supporting dune infrastructure, enhancing groundwater recharge and sustaining wildlife –greater attention is needed to study and protect coastal forests,” says Davi.
Davi, a dendrochronologist and paleoclimatologist, is also an adjunct senior research scientist at the Tree-Ring Laboratory of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where some of the top researchers from across the world collaborate. Leland is also affiliated with the Tree-Ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Other collaborators included researchers from the Tree-Ring Laboratory, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University; the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain; the Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padua, Italy, and the Harvard Forest, in Petersham, Massachusetts.
In addition, six William Paterson University alumni—Troy Nixon ‘19, Michaela Gardiner ’20, Marta Urbaniak ‘23, Matthew Young ‘21, Brianda Calderon ‘21 and Nicole Lucianin ‘21—assisted with various parts of the project while they were undergraduate students, from data development to determining which hurricanes had the most impact on the region, as well as taking and measure tree core samples.
The research was sponsored by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium with funds from NOAA’s Office of Sea Grant, U.S. Department of Commerce.
