Simon Barre (Bangor University) and David J. Pereira (Birmingham University) write about the sad reality that many island species face due to the increased frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones. Here’s an excerpt from here conversation.
For the original science article, read Simon Valle, David J. Pereira, Thomas J. Matthews and Thomas E. Martin’s “Increasing Extinction Risks from Tropical Cyclones in Island Biodiversity Hotspots.” Biological ConservationVol. 307, July 2025. [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.]
When the major cyclones rip off the island nation, all efforts are rightly focused on saving human lives and restoring livelihoods. However, these storms have lasting consequences for other species that are often forgotten.
As the world continues to heat up, cyclones More frequent, intense, unpredictable. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global authority on biodiversity, lists storms as a factor that threatens one. But how many threats are still not understood.
The effects of cyclones on biodiversity are easily ignored as damage is suddenly, scattered and difficult to measure. Extinction is sudden and may not be noticed. This largely overlooked extinction crisis can get worse with climate change.
in New researchmeasured the threat posed by tropical cyclones regarding the diversity of land mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles around the world. We mapped all severe tropical cyclones that occurred between 1972 and 2022, identifying areas that overlap with areas that are widely recognized as highly abundant in species, also known as biodiversity hotspots.
We have focused only on severe cyclones with wind speeds above 130 mph, as historically these have been the case for species to decline or extinct significantly.
What we found surprised us. Three-quarters of all severe cyclones struck a hotspot, which is entirely made up of islands. This looked amazing. Anyway, there is an inherently high risk of extinction anyway, as it supports many species that have evolved alone, not found anywhere else. These species often have very few populations and nowhere to escape when a disaster occurs.
Even more worrying, over 95% of the severe cyclones that hit the island’s biodiversity hotspots hit the same five. These are in descending order of cyclone frequencies: Japan, Polynesia – Micronesia, the Philippines, Madagascar, the Indian Ocean Islands, and the Caribbean Islands.
We have clearly identified high-risk areas, what does this mean for the animal species that live there? To investigate, we looked at the Red List of Endangered Species Species, edited and updated regularly by the IUCN, to see how many vertebrate species were identified due to their vulnerability to storms.
One Cyclone away from extinction
Hotspots that experience the most severe cyclones do not necessarily have the species that are most threatened by the storm. For example, Japan has the most storms, but none of the least risky species, while fewer storms in the Caribbean are threatened with over 128 species. This suggests that cyclone frequency alone does not determine the risks to biodiversity in each region.
Other aspects may play a role. In particular, the data show that island biodiversity hotspot species, made up of many small islands, are at risk of local or global extinction.
The more we learn about the dangers poses of cyclones, the more worried we became. Many species ranges are very limited so that only one cyclone can be completely wiped out. That’s what happened before. Bahamanu Touch (Sitta insularis), the songbirds that live in small forests are thought to have been extinct following the passage of the Hurricane Dorian 2019. [. . .]
Check out the endangered short film of Bahamianutou:
Excterpts has been reissued under a Creative Commons license. For the complete article, please refer to https://theconversation.com/for-many-island-species-the-the-next-tropical-cyclone-may-be-their-last-256600
[Photo above by David Pereira: “The Bahama warbler, a species which suffered greatly as a result of Hurricane Dorian in 2019.”]
