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Pathways to Hurricane Resilience in Ecological and Agricultural Systems
Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M.
Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M.
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Hurricanes are among the most powerful forces shaping tropical landscapes, capable of rapidly transforming ecosystems and human livelihoods. As these storms intensify under ongoing climate change, understanding the factors that enable ecological and agricultural systems to persist under extreme disturbances is increasingly urgent. This dissertation examines resilience dynamics in Puerto Rico, a tropical archipelago facing compounding climatic and socio-economic stressors, by assessing how rainforest moth communities and small- to medium-scale farms respond to and recover from hurricanes.
In a wet tropical forest, I monitored moth communities across two habitat types before and up to five years after the 2017 hurricanes Irma and María. Chapter 1 shows that immediately after the storms, richness declined and composition shifted across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions, favoring smaller, grass-feeding species while larger, tree-feeding moths declined. However, Chapter 2 demonstrates that these early losses were transient. Richness and abundance rebounded within two years, and by five years post-hurricane, stability metrics suggested full recovery despite continued compositional turnover. These results underscore the resilience of tropical insect communities and the value of long-term data in revealing recovery trajectories after extreme events.
On small and medium-scale farms, I used a mixed-methods approach to assess resilience capacities across ecological, social, and economic dimensions and their influence on farmers’ losses and recovery following major hurricanes. Chapter 3 shows that while capacities varied widely among farmers, many were positively correlated, indicating potential to strengthen synergies. Farmers who were younger, managed larger farms, and had stronger business management skills experienced fewer losses and faster recovery, highlighting the vulnerability of older, smaller-scale farmers with limited resources. These patterns offer insights for targeted policies and interventions that enhance adaptive capacity and equitable recovery in hurricane-prone food systems.
By integrating ecological and agricultural perspectives through a multidimensional, systems-thinking framework, this dissertation uncovers pathways to hurricane resilience in tropical landscapes. The findings illuminate opportunities to safeguard biodiversity and rural livelihoods while guiding strategies for adaptation and recovery in a rapidly changing world.
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2026
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