Abstract
Physiographic environments, species composition, and population structure of coastal forests in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, were investigated to clarify types of damage to trees and other impacts to the forests 3 months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011. The coast at the study site was originally protected by a seawall, and a banked canal had been dug parallel to the coast. Sand dunes, dominated by young P. thunbergii, had developed seaward of the canal, while the landward side was characterized by back marsh dominated by mature P. thunbergii and P. densiflora.
A belt transect (540 × 40 m) was set perpendicular to the shoreline and transecting both sand dune and back marsh. In 2006, before the tsunami, elevations along the sand dune sections of the belt transect varied widely between 1.1 and 4.8 m, while those in the back marsh, except for the canal bank, measured between 0.5 and 1.2 m. After the tsunami, large decreases in elevation were recorded on the sand dunes, caused mainly by scouring directly behind the seawall and canal bank. Large decreases were also measured on the back marsh, due to uprooting of trees and stripping of soil by the tsunami.
The total number of both live and dead trees over 5 cm in DBH were 1,738 and 1,039 on the sand dune and back marsh, respectively. Healthy living trees of the two Pinus species were observed mainly on the back marsh, with the proportion of live trees increasing roughly with distance from shoreline. Various types of damage, such as leaning (2.0 trees/100 m2), uprooted (1.4), floating (1.0), and stem breakage/bending (0.5), were observed on the back marsh, but leaning (7.9 trees/100 m2) and stem breakage/bending (6.4) were frequent on the sand dune. Seedlings and saplings of deciduous broad-leaved trees such as Quercus serrata were observed only on the back marsh. Those of P. thunbergii were also observed both in the back marsh and sand dune. These trees and/or other plants recruited after the disturbance may be taking advantage of new microhabitats, such as mounds and pits created by uprooted trees, created by the disturbance. Continuous monitoring is needed to clarify changes of coastal forest ecosystems after the disturbance.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Kevin Short for editorial assistance. This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI 24510332, 25830153.
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Tomita, M., Hirabuki, Y., Kanno, H., Hara, K. (2016). Influences of Large, Infrequent Disturbance Caused by Tsunami on Coastal Forest Communities. In: Urabe, J., Nakashizuka, T. (eds) Ecological Impacts of Tsunamis on Coastal Ecosystems. Ecological Research Monographs. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56448-5_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56448-5_22
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