A long-term study at the University of Cincinnati has documented the rise of invasive species in a forest devastated by a tornado 25 years ago.
The EF-4 tornado on April 9, 1999, carried wind speeds of more than 200 miles per hour as it barreled through suburbs north of Cincinnati, according to the National Weather Service. The storm killed four people and destroyed more than 200 homes in the suburbs Blue Ash and Montgomery.
And it devastated a good part of the Harris Benedict Nature Preserve, 64 acres of hills, creeks and deciduous forest that UC oversees. The storm flattened trees and sheared the tops off others.
Since the storm, biologists in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences have documented the forest’s recovery in four detailed botanical surveys. Their findings are shedding light on how major disturbances can have lasting and unexpected consequences for biodiversity, lead author and UC Professor Theresa Culley said.
The study found that forests have the capacity to regenerate after a major disturbance but often with fewer native species and more nonnative, invasive ones.
“We know the forest is growing back. That’s good. But what’s the composition of those plants?” Culley said. “We see a decline in some native tree species that normally would be there and more invasive species.”
The study was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
A storm to remember
Study co-author Marjorie Bécus survived the storm at her home near the preserve. Tornado sirens woke her at 5 a.m.
“I turned on the radio. It said this is an emergency — go to your basement — so I did,” she said. “I took my cat who was sleeping on the bed. There was a TV down there and they were tracking it. All of a sudden, there was a loud noise outside and the lights went out.”
Minutes later, there was a knock on her front door.
“I didn’t have a flashlight. I found my way to the front door and it was two of my neighbors checking on me. I looked out behind them and said, ‘Are those my trees?’”
The storm had uprooted and toppled trees along a 10-mile path of destruction.
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Categories: Ohio, Rural Lifestyle, Weather