Hurricanes pose an increasing threat to coastal environments as the intensity and severity of hurricanes are predicted to increase under the changing climate. Coastal wetlands are effective nature-based defenses of coastal cities against storms. However, the ecosystems themselves are also susceptible to the impacts of hurricanes, which are highly complex and not fully understood. Here we utilize multi-decadal satellite data archives (Landsat 1984–2014 and MODIS 2005–2015) and long-term coast-wide field-based environmental data (1978–2018) to investigate the impacts of hurricanes Katrina (2005), Gustav (2008), and Isaac (2012) on the coastal marshes in Louisiana, USA, where the hurricanes made landfall. While the hurricanes had immediate impacts on the marshes’ biomass and area at an ecosystem scale, general recovery was observed in the next one and two years. We also found that the most severe damage always occurred in the intermediate and brackish marshes of the Breton Sound basin, where the nitrogen concentration in the water was significantly higher compared to areas with less damage (P < 0.01). Because excess nutrient can reduce the marshes' root growth and degrade their root mat, we posit that the long-term nutrient enrichment in the area, which resulted from the diverted Mississippi River water, has increased the marshes’ susceptibility to hurricanes. The results highlight the resilience of coastal marsh ecosystems against hurricanes, but also underline the profound synergistic effects of climatic and anthropogenic factors on the sustainability of coastal ecosystems, which have important implications for coastal management under the current climate trend.

飓风对沿海环境构成越来越大的威胁，因为据预测，随着气候变化，飓风的强度和严重性将增加。沿海湿地是沿海城市抗风暴的有效自然基础防御措施。但是，生态系统本身也容易受到飓风的影响，而飓风的影响是高度复杂的，尚未得到充分了解。在这里，我们利用多年代卫星数据档案库（Landsat 1984–2014和MODIS 2005–2015）和长期的基于海岸的野外环境数据（1978–2018）来调查卡特里娜飓风（2005），古斯塔夫（ 2008年）和艾萨克（2012年）在美国路易斯安那州的沿海沼泽地上，飓风在那儿登陆。尽管飓风在生态系统规模上对沼泽地的生物量和面积产生了直接影响，在接下来的一年和两年中，观察到总体恢复。我们还发现，最严重的破坏总是发生在不列颠海湾盆地中部和微咸的沼泽中，与破坏程度较小的地区相比，水中的氮浓度明显更高（P <0.01）。由于过多的养分可以减少沼泽地根系的生长并降低其根系，因此我们认为，密西西比河水改道导致该地区长期的养分富集，增加了沼泽对飓风的敏感性。研究结果强调了沿海沼泽生态系统对飓风的抵御能力，同时也强调了气候和人为因素对沿海生态系统可持续性的深刻协同作用，