Impact of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake on rocky intertidal community elucidated by a large-scale longterm community census

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24570012
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: NODA Takashi 北海道大学, 地球環境科学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (90240639)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 地震 / 東北地方太平洋沖地震 / 岩礁潮間帯 / 底生生物 / 撹乱 / 生物群集 / 津波 / 沈降

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake caused large tsunami and subsidence in the Tohoku region. Before the event, I regularly carried out a rocky intertidal community census for eight years on five shores close to the epicenter of the earthquake. To assess impacts of the earthquake by before/after comparison, I carried out the survey using the same method at the same place from 2011 to 2014. The course and status of recovery of populations substantially varied among species. A barnacle drastically increased and expanded its vertical range in 2011, then decreased. Other sessile species shifted their zonations downward according to the subsidence in 2011. Some of them did not clearly change their abundances light after the earthquake but increased and moved upward, while others continuously decreased. All mobile species did not clearly change their vertical distributions light after the earthquake. Among them two species decreased from 2012 and not recover.

Free Research Field

生態学