Community and meta-population analysis of macrobentic animals in intertidal flats of Sendai Bay

Representative Organization: Tohoku University

2013/04/01 - 2014/03/31
one to two times per year for each of total ca 10 intertidal flats

Sendai Bay / Matsushima Bay

Field survey

Species diversity monitoring by census methods was done for analyzing annual changes of fauna after the 2011 tsunami. Samplings for genetic analyses was made for some of major macrobenthic animals/populations.

We examined benthic fauna at several intertidal flats in Sendai Bay and compared the community compositions before and after the 2011 tsunami, and revealed that magnitude of changes in community compositions just after the tsunami was dependent on largeness of the tsunami waves impacted on the sites. In 2013, however, most species inhabited before the tsunami has appeared, although their abundances have not yet returned at the level before the tsunami. Genetic composition of several benthic species such as snails and clubs were examined for local populations along the intertidal flats in Sendai Bay to look at changes in genetic structures by the tsunami and gene flows among the local populations. The analyses so far suggest no notable difference in genetic structure among the local populations for most species examined but detailed examinations are still underway. Some individual samples of each Hemigrapsus penicillatus, H. takanoi, Batillaria attramentaria and Euspira fortunei are stored in methanol for doing genetic analyses.

FY2013 Community and meta-population analysis of macrobentic animals in intertidall fllats of Sendai Bay