Spatiotemporal Changes in Forest Metrics after a Catastrophic Tornado in Planted Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda L.) Stands

Abstract

Tornadoes drastically impact managed forest landscapes, altering structure, composition, and economic valuation. Tornadoes occur frequently in the US and are projected to increase in the southeastern region, which is a substantial timber-producing region. Quantifying tornado damage in managed forest landscapes is important for guiding management decisions and modeling recovery efforts to recoup economic losses. We assessed the spatiotemporal effects on forest structure, volume, and carbon in 13–17 year old loblolly pine ( Pinus taeda L.) stands after an EF-3 tornado, with a path length of 35 km long and damage swath of 250 m wide, in Shallotte, North Carolina, US. We established 36 plots along a tornado path and reconstructed pre-storm stand characteristics to compare them to the first and third growing seasons (2021 and 2023) after the storm. To evaluate the spatial distribution of damage, we sampled directly in the tornado’s path, along its edge, and in undisturbed, adjacent forest areas within the same stand. We found that damage was localized, reducing trees per hectare, basal area, volume, and aboveground carbon stock by ~ 50% directly inside the tornado track, while plots located on the edge or in undisturbed forest areas were nominally affected. By the third growing season, all metrics from plots inside the tornado track, except for tree density, increased and stand volume returned to the pre-storm levels. This indicates a rapid recovery in even-aged, spatially uniform pine stands with minimal impacts at the edges and forest interior from the tornadic event. By documenting localized losses and metric-specific recovery of forest structure, this study establishes an empirical baseline for understanding short-term tornado effects in even-aged pine stands, which is important for informing targeted post-disturbance management decisions.

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