BIOS’s Bermuda Risk project has released its postmortem report on Hurricane Joaquin. Along with the a study of the meteorology of the storm and its interaction with the ocean, the report also explores aspects of the island’s resilience and adaptation in the context of increased hurricane activity over the 2014 to 2015 period.
Five years of data collected on reefs and offshore in Bermuda shows that coral reef chemistry – and perhaps the future success of corals – is tied not only to the human carbon emissions causing systematic ocean acidification, but also to seasonal and decadal cycles in the open waters of the Atlantic, and the balance of biochemical processes in the coral reef community.
Claims of a ‘hurricane drought’ are based on an arbitrary focus on wind speed while ignoring storm pressure, power, and damage
Biology professor Todd Livdahl has found that very scenario in Bermuda. While accompanying Clark biology students at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Livdahl’s attention was piqued by the country’s efforts to control specific mosquito species and the diseases they spread.
BIOS is undertaking new research on hurricane risk on the Island, in addition to its traditional focus on global catastrophic risk.