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

Takashi Toyofuku; Pauline Duros; Christophe Fontanier; Briony Mamo; Sabrina Bichon; Roselyne Buscail; Gérard Chabaud; Bruno Deflandre; Sarah Goubet; Antoine Grémare; Christophe Menniti; Minami Fujii; Kiichiro Kawamura; Karoliina Annika Koho; Atsushi Noda; Yuichi Namegaya; Kazumasa Oguri; Olivier Radakovitch; Masafumi Murayama; Lennart Jan De Nooijer; Atushi Kurasawa; Nina Ohkawara; Takashi Okutani; Arito Sakaguchi; Frans Jorissen; Gert-Jan Reichart; Hiroshi Kitazato

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

Takashi Toyofuku ¹ Pauline Duros ¹ Christophe Fontanier ^{2, 3} Briony Mamo ¹ Sabrina Bichon ³ Roselyne Buscail ⁴ Gérard Chabaud ³ Bruno Deflandre ³ Sarah Goubet ³ Antoine Grémare ³ Christophe Menniti ⁴ Minami Fujii ⁵ Kiichiro Kawamura ⁵ Karoliina Annika Koho ^{6, 7} Atsushi Noda ⁸ Yuichi Namegaya ⁸ Kazumasa Oguri ¹ Olivier Radakovitch ⁹ Masafumi Murayama ¹⁰ Lennart Jan De Nooijer ¹¹ Atushi Kurasawa ¹ Nina Ohkawara ¹ Takashi Okutani ¹ Arito Sakaguchi ^{1, 5} Frans Jorissen ¹² Gert-Jan Reichart ^{6, 11} Hiroshi Kitazato ¹

1 JAMSTEC - Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

2 LPG - Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique UMR6112

3 EPOC - Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques

4 CEFREM - Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens

5 Yamaguchi University [Yamaguchi]

6 Department of Earth Sciences [Utrecht]

7 Department of Environmental Sciences

8 Geological Survey of Japan

9 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement de géosciences de l'environnement

10 Center for Advanced Marine Core Research

11 NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

12 BIAF - Laboratoire des Bio-Indicateurs Actuels et Fossiles

Abstract : On March 11th, 2011 the Mw 9.0 2011 Tohoku-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.

Keywords : Biodiversity Palaeoceanography

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Life Sciences [q-bio] / Ecology, environment

Complete list of metadatas

https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01287834
Contributor : Olivier Savoyat <>
Submitted on : Monday, March 14, 2016 - 12:22:40 PM
Last modification on : Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - 5:07:09 PM
Long-term archiving on : Sunday, November 13, 2016 - 6:08:22 PM

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

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

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