• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Clemson researchers: Trees grow more efficient leaves to compensate for hurricane damage

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 18, 2018
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom — Some tree species heal from the ravages of hurricane damage by growing replacement leaves optimized for greater efficiency, according to a Clemson University field study presented at the British Ecological Society’s annual conference.

This new, optimized growth is an apparent attempt to fight back when hurricane winds rip away limbs and leaves.

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year, ecologists at Clemson’s Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science in Georgetown, South Carolina, took the opportunity to study how hurricanes affect tropical dry forests in the Caribbean. The worst natural disaster on record to affect the U.S. territory, the hurricane stripped numerous trees bare of their leaves and disrupted their ability to absorb the light needed for growth and survival.

Clemson researchers sought to determine whether the trees were capable of compensating for the significant damage by increasing resource acquisition in newly produced leaves. At Tuesday’s conference, which brought together 1,200 ecologists from more than 40 countries to discuss the latest research, doctoral student Tristan Allerton presented findings from the year-long field study.

“Our study took us to the Guánica State Forest in southwest Puerto Rico, which comprises one of the best parcels of native dry forest in the Caribbean,” said Allerton. “Rainfall here is extremely erratic, with huge variability within and between years. The forest also sits on limestone from an ancient coral reef, which is extremely porous, meaning trees have little time to capture water as it travels through the underlying rock. As a result, organisms are uniquely adapted to cope with unpredictable water availability.”

The researchers examined the leaves of the 13 most dominant tree species one, eight and 12 months after Hurricane Maria struck, comparing them with leaves that were collected before the hurricane. They analyzed whether the immediate changes observed in leaves were temporary or maintained over multiple seasons.

Trees rely on exchanging gas through their leaves, simultaneously collecting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to convert into energy while trying to minimize water loss. To capture maximum leaf-gas exchange rates by trees, the team attached a sensor to new leaves in the forest at several points during the day. They also looked at the newly produced leaves’ shapes and structures, which play an important role in efficiently extracting gas from the atmosphere.

The preliminary findings suggest that 11 of 13 species studied were taking in carbon dioxide at much higher rates immediately following Hurricane Maria. Many had also changed key characteristics of their leaves, including increasing leaf area relative to leaf biomass investment. Simply put, trees were able to capture the same amount of light while spending less energy on leaf production.

“A key finding was that the leaves of some of the species contained less chlorophyll than prior to the hurricane,” said professor Skip Van Bloem, director of the Baruch Institute and Allerton’s supervisor. “Even though new leaves were better suited structurally to capture valuable resources, lower leaf quality could reduce leaf lifespan and the trees’ ability to produce energy.”

Overall, Caribbean tropical dry forests seem to be capable of tolerating major hurricanes, though the ecologists stressed that there may be winners and losers in terms of how species respond.

Currently it is unclear whether dominant evergreen species can exploit post-hurricane conditions to the same extent as deciduous species, according to Allerton.

“Many of our evergreens displayed little change in gas exchange rates and in general the relative decline in new leaf chlorophyll after Maria was much greater than for deciduous species,” he said. “Under normal conditions, evergreens renew their canopies over monthly and yearly timescales, therefore it’s likely hurricane canopy damage is a more expensive process for these trees.”

As climate change leads to expected increases in hurricane frequency and intensity, the species composition of tropical dry forests in the Caribbean is likely to change. One concern is whether endemic species will disappear over time.

“This would be a huge shame as Caribbean dry forests are known to have a higher proportion of endemic species than mainland dry forests,” Allerton said. “Many trees found there are also incredibly ancient, making these forests a living museum of biodiversity.”

###

Media Contact
Skip Van Bloem
[email protected]
843-546-1013
http://newsstand.clemson.edu/?p=164907

Tags: Atmospheric ScienceClimate ChangeEcology/EnvironmentForestryPlant SciencesWeather/Storms
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Exploring Taar Expression in Mandarin Fish Response

October 28, 2025
blank

Uncovering Hidden Carbon Dioxide Absorption: Russian Scientists Reveal Plant Roots’ Secret Role

October 27, 2025

Bumblebees Respond to Female Signals in Short Range

October 27, 2025

Impact of Nitrogen Stress on Tobacco Metabolism

October 27, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1287 shares
    Share 514 Tweet 321
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    310 shares
    Share 124 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    197 shares
    Share 79 Tweet 49
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    135 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Advancing Lithium-Ion Battery Health Estimation with AI

Perillaldehyde Reduces Insulin Resistance in Trophoblasts

CREB5 Drives Cervical Cancer Nodal Metastasis via APLN

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.