The effect of tropical cyclones on the carbon cycle

Sammanfattning: Tropical cyclones influence processes within the carbon cycle on different time-scales. Forested ecosystems suffer windfall and long-term impacts from tropical cyclones, leading to the release of CO2 to the atmosphere. The coarse woody debris created by extreme wind speeds and landslides brought on by tropical cyclones can leave a forested ecosystem via riverine channels and end up in the ocean, where it is unclear whether it is buried or slowly decomposed. Particulate organic carbon is flushed out of terrestrial ecosystems along with the coarse woody debris. Furthermore, air-sea fluxes of CO2 are influenced and local levels can be altered significantly by the passage of a tropical cyclone. Mixing induced in the euphotic zone of the oceans leads to increases in primary production in the wake of tropical cyclones, which could be an important factor in the global carbon balance. Global warming has led and will lead to changes in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones, and therefore the importance of these processes will shift in the future. In this review, the effect of tropical cyclones on tree mortality, terrestrial carbon transport, ocean primary production and air-sea co2 fluxes were singled out and researched. Factors playing into these processes and the speculated impact of the changing climate were analysed. Case studies on each of these processes were examined and their impact and importance was quantified. As tropical cyclones mainly impact the oceans and make landfall between 45° north and 45° south of the equator, these areas were focused on. Both modelled and observed methods of research were considered and reviewed.