Plant identity and cover in coastal wetlands is changing worldwide, many subtropical salt marshes dominated by low-stature herbaceous species are becoming woody mangroves. Yet, how changes affect soil biogeochemical processes belowground biomass before after storms uncertain. We experimentally manipulated the percent mangrove (Avicennia germinans) 3 × m cells embedded 10 plots (24 42 m) compris...

Storm surges require that coastal residents make necessary preparations and evacuate the coast prior to hurricane landfall. An important individual characteristic in preparing for tropical cyclones is hurricane personal self-efficacy. Coastal residents who believe that it is possible to prepare for and evacuate ahead of a hurricane (hurricane response possibilities) and, further, believe that t...

This study evaluated how individuals living on the Gulf Coast perceived hurricane risk after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It was hypothesized that hurricane outlook and optimistic bias for hurricane risk would be associated positively with distance from the Katrina-Rita landfall (more optimism at greater distance), controlling for historically based hurricane risk and county population density,...

Little is known about the effects of surface water over land on the decay of landfalling hurricanes. This study, using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory hurricane model, examines the surface temperature changes due to hurricane–land surface water interactions, and their effects on the surface heat fluxes, hurricane structure, and intensity...

In this study, the effect of thermodynamic environmental changes on hurricane intensity is extensively investigated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory hurricane model for a suite of experiments with different initial upper-tropospheric temperature anomalies up to 648C and sea surface temperatures ranging from 268 to 318C given the same...

BACKGROUND We examined patterns and correlates of speed of recovery of estimated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among people who developed PTSD in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. METHOD A probability sample of prehurricane residents of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was administered a telephone survey 7-19 months following the hurricane and again 24-27 months posthurricane. The base...