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The Impacts of Natural Disasters A Framework for Loss Estimation (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Environmental Impacts of Natural Disasters
Pages 55-64

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From page 55...
... ; (2) some extreme events have positive impacts on ecosystems (e.g., floods can help rejuvenate floodplain vegetation and are i~nportar~t drivers of In any ecological processes in floodplains)
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From page 56...
... To the average human observer, floodplain forests appear to change scarcely at all from year to year, and therefore the (death of trees ciuring or after a major flood seems 2 The severe damage from the 1927 flood on the lower Mississippi River and in 1993 in the Upper Mississippi basin could have been substantially reduced if levees bordering the river had neither failed nor been overtopped, and if other forms of mitigation had been adopted. Meanwhile, the Yellowstone fires that occurred during the 1988 drought were worsened because of"let-it-burn" and other forest management practices and because fire prediction models at the time were outmoded and inadequate for such an extreme event (Riebsame et al., 1991~.
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From page 57...
... The combination of the flood-aciapted animals and plants, the seasonal flows and great floods, the river and its channels, and the complex patchwork of floodplain habitats constitute the dynamic and phenomenally productive riverflooUplain ecosystem. Large river-flooUplain ecosystems provide valuable hydrological and ecological services and functions, such as flood storage and conveyance; the maintenance of biodiversity, retention, recycling, and conversion of potentially polluting nutrients into useful biomass; production of fish, wildlife, and forests; and the provisions of corridors for migratory fish and wildlife.
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From page 58...
... Another potential pest was introduced when a fish farm on a tributary of the Mississippi flooded and Asian black carp escaped. The carp is able to consume endangered native mussels and chains and competes with the native fish and ducks that airea~iy consume zebra mussels.
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From page 59...
... the spread of a serious economic and environmental pest, the European zebra mussel, that accidentally had previously beer introduced to the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes drainage by transoceanic ships (and facilitates} other introduced pests, such as the Asian tiger mosquito)
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From page 60...
... The ctry conditions in areas adjacent to the fires greatly reduced the number of tree seedlings, with mortality of 40 percent of the trees planted in the 10 years prior to 1988, including 150 million pine seedlings. The drought led to increased insect attacks on commercial forests, and 5.7 billion board feet of lumber were lost because of pine bark beetles.
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From page 61...
... In the long run, however, nature generally has adapted to these events, so the extent of negative impacts of these events is not clear. Severe Local Storms Severe local thunderstorms such as a major tornado striking Wichita or a thunderstorm producing large hailstorms in Dallas are often labeled as natural disasters due to the attendant looses of life and economic losses, but in general these events are localized.
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From page 62...
... High winds and waves caused by severe extratropical cyclones damage beaches and shoreline ecosystems. This is a problem mainly along the East Coast when strong "Nor'easters" strike along shores ranging from 500 to 1,000 miles in length and in the Great Lakes, where winter storms create waves that severely erode beaches.
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From page 63...
... 1995. Observations of fish community structure and reproductive success in flooded terrestrial habitats during an extreme flood event.
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Key Terms

  • natural disasters
  • american meteorological
  • winter storms
  • meteorological society
  • extreme geophysical

  • zebra mussel
  • extreme events
  • bulletin american
  • upper mississippi
  • yellowstone fires

  • introduced pests
  • major floods
  • extreme event
  • storms create
  • east coast

  • flooded terrestrial
  • environmental costs
  • geophysical events
  • environmental pest
  • serious economic

  • ground water
  • insured property
  • water quality
  • property losses
  • aquatic plants

  • ecological benefits
  • negative impacts
  • square miles
  • black carp
  • floodplain ecosystems


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