Poster Presentation：“International Symposium on Restoration after Great East Japan Earthquake—our Knowledge on the Ecosystem and Fisheries”

Poster presentation at the “International Symposium on Restoration after Great East Japan Earthquake—our Knowledge on the Ecosystem and Fisheries”, 2–4 Mar, 2016, Tokyo, Japan.

Five years have passed since the time when great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent great tsunami attacked the Tohoku region of Japan in March 2011. The “Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS)”, a multidisciplinary research project aiming at clarifying the environmental changes and helping local fishery restoration, launched an international symposium to summarize the current scientific knowledge on tsunami-induced ecosystem damages, to figure out future scientific issues, and to clarify the way that scientists can contribute to the society on Mar. 2–4 at Yayoi-hall of the University of Tokyo.

My poster presentation presented the data collected by a 5-years monitoring of the microbial dynamics in a tsunami-damaged bay, showing that the great tsunami might have caused transient, yet significant impacts on the virus abundances. Specifically, viral abundance was low during the high turbidity period following the tsunami, which was suggested to be caused by scavenging of viruses by suspended particles derived from land inflow. Since the interaction between viruses and bacteria could influence the energy and material transfer to the higher trophic levels, this phenomenon is worthwhile to be noted as an intriguing tsunami-impact on the microbial system of the Sanriku coastal environments.

Research Follow – Yanhui Yang

Presented poster:

Yang Y., Fukuda H., Nagata T. (2016) Possible transient impacts of the 2011 Earthquake on the microbial system in Otsuchi Bay. International Symposium on Restoration after Great East Japan Earthquake—our Knowledge on the Ecosystem and Fisheries. 2–4 Mar, 2016, Tokyo, Japan