Date of Award
8-2026
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
School
Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences
Committee Chair
Dr. Kayla Stan
Committee Chair School
Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences
Committee Member 2
Dr. Clay Tucker
Committee Member 2 School
Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences
Committee Member 3
Dr. Mac H. Alford
Committee Member 3 School
Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences
Abstract
Forests lying along the US Gulf Coast face future losses in the coming decades due to the acceleration of climate change, intensification of hurricanes, and sea level rise. While significant funding and research have targeted Louisiana’s dramatic land losses and Florida’s expanding “ghost forests,” Mississippi’s smaller Gulf coastline has largely been overlooked. This thesis aims to use tree-ring science to both expand the knowledge on a threatened forest population along the Mississippi coastline of the Gulf of Mexico and provide data to strengthen conservation plans for the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR) and similar protected lands. Tree rings were collected from pine species at three sites along a transect moving from forests on the coastline inland to analyze growth responses at various distances from the current coastline of the GBNERR. A suppression chronology was compared against known tropical storms, storm surge events, and droughts in the region to find if these variables correlate with growth decreases in the years of these events and the following year. Although all sites exhibited suppressed periods following storm surge events, only the site closest to the coast had a statistically significant negative correlation with both hurricane windspeeds and storm surge, while more inland sites respond to other unknown limiting factors. In addition, all sites exhibited a positive relationship between average growth and both growing season precipitation and soil moisture, with the nearest and farthest site from the coast also having a positive correlation with drought metrics. These findings suggest that storm surge inundation and hurricane force winds negatively affect growth in extreme coastal pine trees, and that the inland extent of growth decreases can be measured using tree-ring records. Further research is needed to locate how far inland pine tree growth can be negatively affected by storm surge, and if a boundary can be established using a suppression chronology generated from annual tree growth rings.
Copyright
John Kupersmith, 2026
Recommended Citation
Kupersmith, John M., "Analyzing the Effects of Coastal Storm Surge Flooding and Tropical Cyclones on Growth in Pine Forests along the Mississippi Gulf Coast" (2026). Master's Theses. 1208.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1208
Included in
Botany Commons, Climate Commons, Other Earth Sciences Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Other Plant Sciences Commons