Drought stress and hurricane defoliation influence mountain clouds and moisture recycling in a tropical forest.

ABSTRACT: Mountain ranges generate clouds, precipitation, and perennial streamflow for water supplies, but the role of forest cover in mountain hydrometeorology and cloud formation is not well understood. In the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico, mountains are immersed in clouds nightly, providing a steady precipitation source to support the tropical forest ecosystems and human uses. A severe drought in 2015 and the removal of forest canopy (defoliation) by Hurricane Maria in 2017 created natural experiments to examine interactions between the living forest and hydroclimatic processes. These unprecedented land-based observations over 4.5 y revealed that the orographic cloud system was highly responsive to local land-surface moisture and energy balances moderated by the forest. Cloud layer

SUBMITTER: Scholl MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7896295 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature