Bryant M. Haley

Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico: Effects on Reservoir Water Quality and Fish Community Structure and Resilience

SEAFWA Journal Volume 7, March 2020
Fisheries Outstanding Technical Paper - Jack Dequine Award

Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 249 km h?1, made landfall on Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017. The extreme precipitation resulting from this hurricane, combined with already saturated soil and the steep, mountainous terrain of the island, led to historic flooding across most of Puerto Rico. Reservoirs in many of the river systems on the island were preemptively drawn down in an attempt to absorb the volume of floodwaters but were quickly overwhelmed. Since many of these reservoirs had been the focus of previous studies, a rare opportunity arose to evaluate how...