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Welcome to HERS

Hurricane Ecosystem Response Synthesis Network

We are a Research Coordination Network (RCN) dedicated to linking terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecologists with economists, sociologists, statisticians, modelers, and resource managers to develop a synthetic understanding in what governs ecosystems’ resistance and resilience to tropical cyclones.

We aim to connect people by organizing multi-day workshops, conferences, and webinar events in order to explore three focal interests:

  1. interactions among ecosystem pre-storm conditions and storm characteristics on ecosystem responses
  2. roles of eco-evolutionary history, life history, and biodiversity on ecosystem responses
  3. feedbacks among natural and social-economic systems that confer resistance and resilience to tropical cyclones

Check out our Events page for details on upcoming and past events.  

In addition to connecting people, another core effort of HERS is synthesize a growing, publicly available database on ecosystem responses to hurricanes; see Data page for more details.  

HERS, funded by the National Science Foundation, was formed in early 2021 and is guided by its Steering Committee as well as member feedback. HERS is an inclusive network; we welcome new researchers internationally and across a wide spectrum of fields to better understand the holistic effects of tropical cyclones on natural and social-economic ecosystems.  We encourage all who feel they can and want to be a part of this important work to join HERS.