Hurricanes increase tropical forest vulnerability to drought.

Rapid changes in climate and disturbance regimes, including droughts and hurricanes, are likely to influence tropical forests, but our understanding of the compound effects of disturbances on forest ecosystems is extremely limited. Filling this knowledge gap is necessary to elucidate the future of these ecosystems under a changing climate. We examined the relationship between hurricane response (damage, mortality, and resilience) and four hydraulic traits of 13 dominant woody species in a wet tropical forest subject to periodic hurricanes. Species with high resistance to embolisms (low P50 values) and higher safety margins ( SMP50 ) were more resistant to immediate hurricane mortality and breakage, whereas species with higher hurricane resilience (rapid post-hurricane growth) had high capacitance and P50 values and low SMP50 . During 26 yr of post-hurricane recovery, we found a decrease in community-weighted mean values for traits associated with greater drought resistance (leaf turgor loss point, P50 , SMP50 ) and an increase in capacitance, which has been linked with lower drought resistance. Hurricane damage favors slow-growing, drought-tolerant species, whereas post-hurricane high resource conditions favor acquisitive, fast-growing but drought-vulnerable species, increasing forest productivity at the expense of drought tolerance and leading to higher overall forest vulnerability to drought.

Psychiatric Comorbidity and Substance Use Outcomes in an Office-Based Buprenorphine Program Six Months Following Hurricane Sandy.

BACKGROUND: On October 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck New York City, resulting in unprecedented damages, including the temporary closure of Bellevue Hospital Center and its primary care office-based buprenorphine program. OBJECTIVES: At 6 months, we assessed factors associated with higher rates of substance use in buprenorphine program participants that completed a baseline survey one month post-Sandy (i.e. shorter length of time in treatment, exposure to storm losses, a pre-storm history of positive opiate urine drug screens, and post-disaster psychiatric symptoms). METHODOLOGY: Risk factors of interest extracted from the electronic medical records included pre-disaster diagnosis of Axis I and/or II disorders and length of treatment up to the disaster. Factors collected from the baseline survey conducted approximately one month post-Sandy included self-reported buprenorphine supply disruption, health insurance status, disaster exposure, and post-Sandy screenings for PTSD and depression. Outcome variables reviewed 6 months post-Sandy included missed appointments, urine drug results for opioids, cocaine, and benzodiazepines. RESULTS: 129 (98%) patients remained in treatment at 6 months, and had no sustained increases in opioid-, cocaine-, and benzodiazepine-positive urine drug tests in any sub-groups with elevated substance use in the baseline survey. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, diagnosis of Axis I and/or II disorders pre-Sandy were associated with significantly less opioid-positive urine drug findings in the 6 months following Sandy compared to the rest of the clinic population. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate the adaptability of a safety net buprenorphine program to ensure positive treatment outcomes despite disaster-related factors.

Intensification mechanisms and moisture dynamics of super cyclonic storm 'Amphan' over the Bay of Bengal: Implications for aerosol re-distribution.

The present research investigates the dynamics and underlying causes contributing to the exceptional intensity of Super Cyclonic Storm (SuCS) Amphan (16th to 21st May 2020) over the Bay of Bengal (BoB), as well as its impact on aerosol redistribution along the four cities of eastern coast and north-eastern India. Notably, the SuCS was formed during the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdown in India, giving it a unique aspect of study and analysis. Our analysis based on 30 years of climatology data from Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis reveals 'positive' monthly anomalous winds (0.8 to 1.6 m/s) prevailed over the central BoB for May 2020. The present study further found the evolution of 'barrier layer thickness'(BLT) leading up to landfall, noting a thickening trend from 8 to 3 days before landfall, contributing to maintaining warmer sea surface temperatures near the coast. Additionally, utilizing European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), reanalysis version-5 (ERA-5) data, a mean positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly of 0.8 to 1 °C was observed 'before' cyclone period (10-15 May 2020) near the cyclogenesis point. A detailed examination of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) vertical cross-section plots during the cyclone's intensification stage reveals the presence of high-altitude clouds composed primarily of ice crystals. Further, analysis also indicates that the cyclone transported Sea-salt PM2.5 aerosols from the ocean, dispersing them in the landfall region.The aerosol optical Depth (AOD) data obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) 'Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES)' mission and MERRA-2 were also analysed, revealing that the cyclone redistributed aerosols over the Bengal basin region (mainly over 'Kolkata') and three other nearby cities along the track of the cyclone (i.e., Bhubaneswar (Odisha) Agartala (Tripura) and Shillong (Meghalaya) respectively).

Integrative Review of Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes After Exposure to a Hurricane.

OBJECTIVE: To appraise and analyze published research on the relationships among hurricane exposure and adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. DATA SOURCES: A literature search was conducted in four electronic databases: CINAHL Plus, Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science. The following search terms were used: "cyclonic storms," "cesarean section," "premature birth," "fetal mortality," "low birth weight," "infant mortality," "pregnancy complications," and "pregnancy outcome." STUDY SELECTION: Documents were included if they were peer-reviewed, full-text articles or government documents published in English through February 2020 that focused on the associations among exposure to hurricanes and adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. The initial search yielded 211 articles, and one article was identified through a hand search. After 48 duplicates were removed, we screened the titles and abstracts of 164 articles. We conducted a full-text review of 57 articles, and 19 articles were included in the integrative review. DATA EXTRACTION: We extracted data from the full text of each article into a standardized table with the following headings: author, year of publication, location, hurricane and year, population studied, study design, outcomes, data source, and results. DATA SYNTHESIS: We analyzed study findings based on the outcomes of pregnancy complications, preterm birth, cesarean birth, labor and birth complications, low birth weight, abnormal newborn conditions, and fetal mortality. We synthesized data in a narrative format, and the synthesis indicated that hurricane exposure was frequently associated with pregnancy complications, preterm birth, low birth weight, cesarean birth, and abnormal newborn conditions. However, these associations were not always consistent. Extant research is limited by inconsistency among study designs and the type of hurricane exposure. CONCLUSION: Interdisciplinary teams that include nurses, midwives, obstetricians and gynecologists, and other health care professionals should ensure that hurricane preparedness and response efforts specifically address the needs of pregnant women to mitigate adverse outcomes.