How Climate Change Is Making Cyclones Worse
Cyclones are natural storms, but climate change is making them stronger and more damaging.
A future scenario called SSP5-8.5 (high fossil fuel use, high global warming) predicts:
More intense cyclones
Cyclones hitting new regions that weren’t affected before.
What the Study Found About Ecosystems
Researchers studied how 844 land ecosystems (ecoregions) around the world respond to cyclones.
They grouped regions as:
Resilient: recover quickly from storms
Dependent: shaped by regular cyclone disturbance
Vulnerable: hit rarely, recover slowly
Many new regions may now face strong cyclones.
Recovery time between storms is shrinking — e.g., from 19 years to 12 years in resilient regions.
Mangroves at High Risk
Mangroves protect coasts, store carbon, and support marine life.
By 2100, up to 56% of mangroves could face high to severe risk in the SSP5-8.5 scenario.
Even in milder scenarios, most Southeast Asian mangroves are still at risk.
Key threats:
Stronger cyclones
Rising sea levels
More frequent hits in sensitive areas
What This Means and What Needs to Be Done
Cyclones may start affecting new places far from the equator.
Some ecosystems might collapse and never recover.
Long-term planning is needed that includes:
Time to recover between storms
Risk-aware conservation strategies
Less reliance on fossil fuels to avoid the worst-case scenario
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