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Decline in intertidal biota after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster: field observations
- Source :
- Scientific Reports
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Nature Publishing Group, 2016.
-
Abstract
- In 2011, 2012 and 2013, in the intertidal zones of eastern Japan, we investigated the ecological effects of the severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that accompanied the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The number of intertidal species decreased significantly with decreasing distance from the power plant and no rock shell (Thais clavigera) specimens were collected near the plant, from Hirono to Futaba Beach (a distance of approximately 30 km) in 2012. The collection of rock shell specimens at many other sites hit by the tsunami suggests that the absence of rock shells around the plant in 2012 might have been caused by the nuclear accident in 2011. Quantitative surveys in 2013 showed that the number of species and population densities in the intertidal zones were much lower at sites near, or within several kilometers south of, the plant than at other sites and lower than in 1995, especially in the case of Arthropoda. There is no clear explanation for these findings, but it is evident that the intertidal biota around the power plant has been affected since the nuclear accident.
- Subjects :
- 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Gastropoda
Intertidal zone
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Population density
Article
law.invention
Japan
law
Nuclear power plant
Earthquakes
Animals
Thais clavigera
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Population Density
Multidisciplinary
biology
Ecology
Biota
biology.organism_classification
Oceanography
Tsunamis
Environmental science
Global biodiversity
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d867a1c724229506440f6af090a8223f
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20416