Hurricanes created major changes in subterranean ecosystems.

[NNadir]

The claim is that things may never return to what they were.

This is a surprise.

OVER THE NORTHERN GULF COAST - Last year's record hurricane season didn't just change life for humans. It changed nature, too.

Everywhere scientists look, they see disrupted patterns in and along the Gulf of Mexico. Coral reefs, flocks of sea birds, crab- and shrimp-filled meadows and dune-crowned beaches were wrapped up in — and altered by — the force of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Dennis.

"Nothing's been like this," said Abby Sallenger, a U.S. Geological Survey oceanographer, during a recent flight over the northern Gulf Coast to study shoreline changes.

For him, the changes are mind-boggling: Some barrier islands are nearly gone; on others, beaches are scattered like bags of dropped flour.

Hurricanes have been kneading the Gulf Coast like putty for eons, carving out inlets and bays, creating beaches and altering plant and animal life — but up to now, the natural world has largely been able to rebound. Trees, marine life and shoreline features tourists and anglers enjoyed in recent years were largely the same types as those 17th century buccaneers and explorers encountered.

But scientists say the future could be different. Nature might not be able to rebound so quickly. The reason: the human factor.

"Natural systems are resilient and bounce back," said Susan Cutter, a geographer with the University of South Carolina. "The problem is when we try to control nature, rather than letting her do what she does."

The seas are rising, the planet is getting hotter and commercial and residential development is snowballing...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060130/ap_on_sc/hurricanes_coastal_changes

[phantom power]

1. The one-two punch.

Human put stress on various ecosystems. They bend, but don't break. Until some other stress comes along, and it's more than the system can take.

Here's my falsifiable "one-two punch" theory: over the coming decades, we will see many endangered animals slip into extinction, from "unexpected" causes. We reduce their numbers to some population on a preserve, somewhere, and then some disease, or drought, or hurricane, whatever, will suddenly kill them all off. Because there weren't enough left, to begin with.

[phantom power]

2. Was that supposed to be submarine ecosystems?

[Kolesar]

4. Save the moles!

[NNadir]

5. Yeah. I made a mistake. Submarine. However many rats were effected.

Some subterreanean places became submarine places though. ;-)

[Kolesar]

3. a hurricane in 1940 destroyed the endangered whooping crane habitat

Are there currently threats to whooping cranes?

The wild flock winters in a small area in Texas where all the birds could be lost to a catastrophic event like a hurricane, red tide, or a contaminant spill which could destroy their habitat, eradicate their food or kill the birds directly as a result of ingestion of toxins. For example, a hurricane in 1940 contributed to the loss of half the population of nonmigratory whooping cranes residing in Louisiana at that time. The population never recovered from that loss and the last bird was captured and moved to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas in 1949.

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/whoopingcrane/wcraneqanda.html

[Dogmudgeon]

6. The other thing: the Mississippi delta area in question is HUGE

It was an econiche all to itself, and it got hammered, after having been softened up by use by humans, encouraged by years of easy hurricane seasons.

I doubt the area will be so lucky until at least the Pacific Decadal Oscillation reverses in about 10 years. And if it's a global-warming-related change, it will be at risk for centuries.

The best thing we can do is to pull the citified area back a few miles, build some well-designed levees, and make sure there are plenty of local griots with enough juju to chase the hurricane spirits away.*

--p!
* :)