When a strong hurricane hits land, uprooted trees, destroyed homes, and other damage are all too visible. In the marine environment, what happens when they agitate water and destroy sediment is not always obvious.
A large number of marine life lives on the Florida peninsula where the hurricane made landfall in the United States. Most often the Florida Keys have coral reefs. Close to meadows, with temperate swamps and seagrass meadows. Flora and fauna in these regions respond differently to hurricanes.
Melissa May, an assistant professor of marine biology at Florida Gulf University, said not all hurricanes have the same effects.
Storm surges are like unusual highs, and some marine environments are relatively undisturbed during hurricanes, she said.
But from changes in salinity to the influx of sediment and bacteria, the aftermath of a storm can have its devastating effects.
What happens to marine life in a hurricane?
In a typical year, there would be about 10 hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, including the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Seas. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .
The power of a hurricane can create waves up to 60 feet high, mixing cold water coming out of the depths with warm surface water. Its currents can stir sediment up to 300 feet deep, according to Noaa .
Many marine mammals and fish can migrate to deeper, calmer waters. During a tropical storm in 2001, researchers tracked the movement of blackhead sharks and found them leaving the area before making landfall and returning 5 to 13 days later.
Scientists hypothesize that air pressure decreases and temperatures change in the water, similar clues warning fish that a storm is coming. A 2019 study found that increased waves fluctuating on the surface of the seafloor prompted gray triangular fish to move deeper waters ahead of hurricanes.
If dolphins and other marine mammals cannot escape the effects of hurricanes, they can be trapped in ponds, levees and other freshwater habitats where they cannot survive.
Hurricanes are also deadly to fish.
After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, an estimated 94,000 saltwater fish died. The United States Geological Survey found it. Sediments may have clogged their gills, and changes in pressure could form deadly nitrogen bubbles in their blood.
In freshwater environments, the same storm spins sediment, depriving water of oxygen, meaning hypoxia. An estimated 187 million fish died in Louisiana.
Hurricanes can also affect stationary or slow-moving marine life. After the hurricane, "seagrass beds and oyster reefs were buried by moving sediments," Valerie Paul said. Smithsonian Maritime Station Mail to insiders. "If you have a lot of storm surge and wave action, this can physically eradicate seagrass," May said.
Hurricane Ian swept nearly 250 baby turtles ashore while the Brevard Zoo's Turtle Treatment Center housed them until they could be re-released.
Some corals rely on waves to break them down and distribute them to new parts of the ocean. Hurricanes can also bring cooler water and help counteract coral bleaching – when the water is too hot makes corals in symbiotic algae provide oxygen and waste removal. But overly strong waves can also break down and kill corals.
What happens to the ocean after a hurricane?
After the storm subsides, garbage and waste stay in the water for months or more.
"There's a lot of debris from Hurricane Ian 'in our estuary,'" May said. Dozens of cars and boats leaked gasoline and other chemicals into the Bay of Estro.
Sewage can also enter waterways, bringing it with bacteria such as enterococci as well as E. Mei said, it was E. coli.
Rain and flooding from hurricanes also flow fresh water into the marine environment. Paul said: "It's a stress for any organism that can't handle large changes in salinity."
Marine organisms tend to tolerate certain changes in salt concentration, but not drastic or long-term changes. For example, the alligator Sanibel Island Hurricane "Ian" hit it hard, it was affected by the saltier waters brought by the storm.
"While alligators can tolerate seawater for a while, they can't live in it indefinitely," according to Law of the Sea. Sanibel Kaputiva Conservation Foundation Chris Lejovic.
Ocean dolphins, on the other hand, can only live in freshwater for a short time without being severely affected. Excessive exposure to fresh water after Hurricane Katrina can lead to a deadly skin condition. Dolphin.
Fresh water also has other effects. "Rivers tend to have much more sediment than seawater, and they tend to have much higher nutrient concentrations from coastal runoff," May said.
If a hurricane injects river water into the ocean system, it creates favorable conditions for macroalgae to form.
"Hurricanes have these cascading effects," May said. For example, algae blooms after Hurricane Ian did not allow sunlight exposure to seagrass, which is the main food source for manatees. Put the pressure on the manatee population that is already threatening Florida.
May noted that hurricanes are natural disasters. "Our ecosystem is actually designed to be wiped out every once in a while," she said. But they also need enough time to recover before the next one.
Climate change may not increase the number of hurricanes, but it will make them more intense, according to NASA which is bad news for marine life as storm surges increase and flooding increases.