Unexpected biotic resilience on the Japanese seafloor caused by the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki tsunami

On March 11 th , 2011 the Mw 9.0 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake resulted in a tsunami which caused major devastation in coastal areas. Along the Japanese NE coast, tsunami waves reached maximum run-ups of 40 m and travelled kilometers inland. Whereas devastation was clearly visible on land, underwater i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2014-12, Vol.4 (1), p.7517-7517, Article 7517
Main Authors: Toyofuku, Takashi, Duros, Pauline, Fontanier, Christophe, Mamo, Briony, Bichon, Sabrina, Buscail, Roselyne, Chabaud, Gérard, Deflandre, Bruno, Goubet, Sarah, Grémare, Antoine, Menniti, Christophe, Fujii, Minami, Kawamura, Kiichiro, Koho, Karoliina Annika, Noda, Atsushi, Namegaya, Yuichi, Oguri, Kazumasa, Radakovitch, Olivier, Murayama, Masafumi, de Nooijer, Lennart Jan, Kurasawa, Atushi, Ohkawara, Nina, Okutani, Takashi, Sakaguchi, Arito, Jorissen, Frans, Reichart, Gert-Jan, Kitazato, Hiroshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/2738
704/158/670
Coastal zone
Colonization
Disasters
Earthquakes
Ecology, environment
Ecosystem
Geography
Geologic Sediments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Japan
Life Sciences
multidisciplinary
Ocean floor
Science
Seismic activity
Shallow water
Tsunamis
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Summary:On March 11 th , 2011 the Mw 9.0 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake resulted in a tsunami which caused major devastation in coastal areas. Along the Japanese NE coast, tsunami waves reached maximum run-ups of 40 m and travelled kilometers inland. Whereas devastation was clearly visible on land, underwater impact is much more difficult to assess. Here, we report unexpected results obtained during a research cruise targeting the seafloor off Shimokita (NE Japan), shortly (five months) after the disaster. The geography of the studied area is characterized by smooth coastline and a gradually descending shelf slope. Although high-energy tsunami waves caused major sediment reworking in shallow-water environments, investigated shelf ecosystems were characterized by surprisingly high benthic diversity and showed no evidence of mass mortality. Conversely, just beyond the shelf break, the benthic ecosystem was dominated by a low-diversity, opportunistic fauna indicating ongoing colonization of massive sand-bed deposits.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep07517