"Plants are coming back in places where there haven't been plants, as far as we know, for a very long time," said researcher Jenny Dugan, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "This is not the initial ecological response you might expect from a major earthquake and tsunami."
The earthquake and tsunami that rocked Chile
in 2010 unleashed substantial and surprising changes on
ecosystems there, yielding insights on how these natural
disasters can affect life and how sea level rise might
affect the world, researchers say.
The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that hit Chile struck off an
area of the coast where 80 percent of the population lives.
The massive quake triggered a tsunami reaching about 30 feet
(10 meters) high that wreaked havoc on coastal communities :
It killed more than 500 people, injured about 12,000 and
damaged or destroyed at least 370,000 houses.
It makes sense that such earthshaking catastrophes would
have drastic consequences on ecosystems in the affected
areas. However, if researchers lack enough data about the
environment before a disaster strikes, as is usually the
case, it can be difficult to decipher these effects. With
the 2010 Chile quake, scientists were able to conduct an
unprecedented report of its ecological implications based on
data collected on coastal ecosystems shortly before and up
to 10 months after the event.
The sandy beaches of Chile apparently experienced
significant and lasting changes because of the earthquake
and tsunami. The responses of ecosystems there depended
strongly on the amount of land level change, how mobile life
there was, the type of shoreline and the degree of human
alteration of the coast. For instance, in places where the
beaches sank and did not have manmade sea walls and other
artificial "coastal armoring" to keep water out, intertidal
animal populations — ones living in the part of the seashore
that is covered at high tide and uncovered at low tide — all
dropped, presumably because their habitats were submerged.
The most unexpected results came from uplifted sandy
beaches. Previously, intertidal species had been kept from
these beaches due to coastal armoring. After the earthquake,
these species rapidly colonized the new stretch of beach the
quake raised up in front of the sea walls.
"This is the first time this has been seen before," said
researcher Eduardo Jaramillo, a coastal ecologist at the
Southern University of Chile.
"Plants are coming back in places where there haven't been
plants, as far as we know, for a very long time," said
researcher Jenny Dugan, a biologist at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. "This is not the initial
ecological response you might expect from a major earthquake
and tsunami."
These findings could help inform future human alterations to
coastlines. For instance, as sea levels rise globally, it
might be wise to consider how beach habitats in front of sea
walls might get changed.
"Around the Pacific coast, there may be another earthquake
tomorrow, the day past tomorrow, we don't know," Jaramillo
told OurAmazingPlanet. "With this kind of research,
hopefully we can learn something from them."
The scientists detailed their findings online Wednesday in
the journal PLoS ONE.
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