Category five hurricanes Irma and María (September 2017) caused significant damage to shallow seagrass communities across Puerto Rico. The magnitude and spatial extent of hurricane impacts on representative seagrass habitats of Culebra Island were addressed using a combination of random photo-quadrats and before–after hurricanes GIS-based imagery analyses. There was a significant loss of shallow seagrasses across all nine surveyed locations. Most of the documented impacts were associated with sediment bedload (horizontal transport), which resulted in burial and suffocation. There was also localized physical disruption of the seagrass habitat matrix across locations exposed to stronger wave action, creating major scars and exposing below-ground structure to further disintegration by future storm events. Displaced coral rubble also caused seagrass burial. Aerial imagery analyses (2007, 2010, 2017) showed a significant decline in seagrass percent cover. Seagrass decline was positively correlated with wave exposure (p < 0.05). Seagrass cover, density, and changes in benthic community structure were documented across five of the surveyed locations during 2018, and these data were further compared to data collected in 2004 at these same sites. There was a decline in percent seagrass cover and density and a change in benthic community structure favoring habitat homogenization. A remarkable finding was the rapid recovery, expansion, and increased localized dominance of the invasive seagrass, Halophila stipulacea. This was particularly evident in areas impacted by recurrent land-based runoff pulses, anchoring, sediment resuspension due to navigation, trampling or by the accumulation of decaying Sargassum mats. Hurricanes triggered a localized shift in marine vegetation, favoring the invasion of H. stipulacea, with potentially significant consequences on ecosystem resilience and on the ability of native in seagrasses to persist and adapt to projected climate change impacts.

中文翻译：

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飓风的影响和侵袭性海藤Hal的复原能力：来自波多黎各的案例研究

第五类飓风艾尔玛和玛丽亚（2017年9月）对波多黎各的浅海草群落造成了严重破坏。飓风对库莱布拉岛代表性海草生境的影响的大小和空间范围，是通过随机照相四象限和飓风前后基于GIS的图像分析相结合解决的。在所有九个调查地点中，浅海草大量损失。大多数已记录的影响与沉积物的床位负荷（水平运输）有关，这导致了埋葬和窒息。海草生境矩阵在暴露于更强波浪作用的位置上也发生了局部物理破坏，造成了严重的疤痕，并使地下结构暴露于未来风暴事件的进一步分解。流离失所的珊瑚瓦砾也造成海草埋葬。航空影像分析（2007年，2010年，2017年）显示，海草覆盖率显着下降。海草下降与波浪暴露呈正相关（p  ＜0.05）。2018年期间，在五个被调查地点记录了海草的覆盖度，密度和底栖生物群落结构的变化，并将这些数据与2004年在相同地点收集的数据进行了进一步比较。海草覆盖率和密度下降，底栖生物群落结构发生变化，有利于生境的均质化。一项非凡的发现是入侵性海草（Shalophila stipulacea）的快速恢复，扩张和局部优势的增强。在反复出现的陆基径流脉冲，锚定，航行，践踏或腐烂的羊栖菜（Sargassum）积聚造成的沉积物重悬影响的地区，这一点尤为明显。垫子。飓风引发了海洋植物本地化的转变，有利于入侵H. stipulacea，对生态系统的弹性和对原生海草中坚持和适应未来的气候变化影响的能力可能显著后果。