Hurricane Destroyed Or Damaged About 320 Million Tress Across The South No surprise: They love trees in Poplarville, Miss.
So when hurricane Katrina ripped out tulip poplars, bent black gum to the ground, and scattered loblolly pines like pick-up sticks, local tree enthusiasts such as Julia Anderson not only had a rude aesthetic shock, but many also sensed that the destruction had shaken the very roots of the region's ecological balance.
Now, scientists using NASA satellite imagery have at least partly confirmed those suspicions. From vast slash pine plantations to river-bottom hardwood stands, hurricane Katrina killed or damaged about 320 million trees across Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas - the largest ecological disaster in US history, new estimates reveal. Confronting a potential 100 million metric tons of greenhouse gases seeping from rotting logs and leaves, the proliferation of nonnative plants, and a spike in wildfire risks, scientists and residents alike are raising new questions about the storm's environmental legacy.
Perhaps the most critical one: Can Katrina-like storms contribute to an ecological "feedback loop," in which carbon being released from fallen, decaying forests raises the occurrences of storms and, in turn, intensifies the effects of global warming? The good news is that resilient and fast-growing Southern forests, with the help of humans, may be able to temper the phenomenon. Source : CBS News
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