Puerto Rico was affected by two major hurricanes during the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, hurricanes Irma and Maria. These large-scale disturbances caused a restructuring of the forests across the whole island, affecting the physical environment of the terrestrial biota. One way to measure how the environment changes after a disturbance is with the use of soundscapes, or the acoustic signatures of an area. This study compares soundscapes of areas recorded before and after the hurricane season to analyze if, in addition to the physical forest restructuring caused by the hurricanes, there were also changes in the acoustic structure. The study was conducted in the Carite State Forest in southeastern Puerto Rico. The results show differences in soundscape structure between the sites measured before and after the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. In-depth analysis of the frequencies used by vocal animals showed that a change in insect activity, and amphibian colonization/extinction, were the main drivers of the observed differences between the pre- and post-hurricane soundscapes. This study corroborates that Passive Acoustic Monitoring and soundscape analysis are important tools to understand how a community reacts to natural, large scale disturbances.
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19 April 2021
Soundscape Structure of the Carite State Forest in Puerto Rico Before and After the 2017 Hurricane Season
Diana C. López-Hernández
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Caribbean Journal of Science
Vol. 51 • No. 1
July 2021
Vol. 51 • No. 1
July 2021