Did huge tsunami on 11 March 2011 impact seagrass bed distributions

in Shizugawa Bay, Sanriku Coast, Japan?

Shuji Sasaa, Shuhei Sawayamaa, Shingo Sakamotoa, Ryo Tsujimotob, Genki Terauchib,
Hiroshi Yagic and Teruhisa Komatsua
a
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha,
Kashaiwa, 277-8564, Japan; bNorthwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center, Toyama,
Toyama, 930-0856, Japan; cVisionTech Inc, 2-1-16 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0045, Japan

ABSTRACT

Seagrass beds play important roles for coastal ecosystems as an ecosystem engineer and also as a habitat for fish and
mollusks as spawning, nursery and feeding grounds, and provide us important ecological services. On 11 March 2011,
huge tsunami hit Sanriku Coast, Japan, after the big earthquakes occurred in Northwestern Pacific Ocean. Seagrass beds
were distributed on sandy or muddy bottom in Shizugawa Bay, Sanriku Coast. Thus, remote sensing research was
conducted to evaluate impact of the tsunami on seagrass bed in Shizugawa Bay, Sanriku Coast. GeoEye-1 multi-band
imageries taken on 4 November 2009 and 22 February 2012 were analyzed to map seagrass beds before and after the
tsunami, respectively. Analysis of the former imagery showed seagrass beds were distributed in sheltered bottom against
waves along the coast corresponding to seagrass distributions obtained through inquiry to fishermen and references on
seagrass bed distributions before the tsunami. Analysis of the latter imagery indicated that seagrass bed distributions on
22 February 2012 were less than on 4 November 2009. Seagrass beds in the bay head disappeared while some seagrass
beds remained behind the points along the north coast. This was verified by the field survey conducted in October 2011
and May and October 2012. Since the tsunami waves propagated into the bay along the longitudinal axis of the bay
without crossing both sides of the bay, they produced only big sea-level changes during the propagation along the both
sides from the center to the bay mouth. Their energy is concentrated the bay head and removes seagrass with sand and
mud substrates. On the other hand, the tsunami higher than 12 m could not completely destroy seagrass beds due to
topographic effect protecting seagrass from strong force by the tsunami. Thus, all seagrass weren’t destroyed completely
in Shizugawa Bay even by the hit of the huge tsunami.
Keywords: Tsunami, GeoEye-1, remote sensing, coastal habitat mapping, seagrass, seaweed

1. INTRODUCTION
Coastal ecosystems provide important ecological services to human society [1]. Seagrass and seaweed beds are one of
the most important ecosystems due to their capabilities to create unique environments. Seagrasses make dense meadows
in their luxuriant season. The meadows reduce water motion as resistance against it. Komatsu (1997) [2] revealed this
phenomenon in Zostera marina meadows using plaster balls [3]. This influence of seagrass meadows consequently
stabilizes bottom sediments [4, 5, 6]. This is also true for seaweed forests [7]. It seems that other influences of seagrass
meadows are similar to those of seaweed forests through shading effect of canopy on light from the sea surface [8],
water temperature [9, 10, 11], and dissolved oxygen and pH distributions through photosynthesis [12, 13]. In coastal
waters, seagrass and seaweed beds are important habitats for many species related to fishery resources. Seagrass beds
are mainly distributed on sandy or muddy bottom, and provide spawning, nursery and feeding grounds to fish, mollusks
and crustacean. Since these habitats are distributed in shallow waters, human activities in coastal waters threaten them,
especially seagrass beds, which extend on flat sandy and muddy bottoms. In 1960s during high economic development
in Japan, seagrass beds had been destroyed by reclamation and pollution [14]. They are vulnerable to environmental
disturbances even natural ones [15]. Thus, it is possible that the tsunami influences seagrass meadows.
Huge tsunami on 11 March 2011 brought catastrophic damages on Sanriku Coast facing Northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Their wave heights were 10-30 m along the coast. A lot of broad seagrass beds were located along Sanriku Coast with
many rias-type bays (Fig. 1) which suffered serious damages by the tsunami. Shizugawa Bay is located in southern

Remote Sensing of the Marine Environment II, edited by Robert J. Frouin,

Naoto Ebuchi, Delu Pan, Toshiro Saino, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525, 85250X
© 2012 SPIE · CCC code: 0277-786/12/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.999307

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525 85250X-1

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 04/01/2013 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

 Sanriku Coast (Fig. 2). Many seagrass meadows were distributed in Shizugawa Bay. However, no seagrass damages
have been reported.
To map seagrass beds, remote sensing is a very practical tool [16, 17, 18]. There are two remote sensing methods for
detecting seagrass beds: acoustic and optic ones. The former uses ultra-sounds to detect seagrass beds an echosounder
[19], a sidescan sonar [20, 21, 22] and a narrow multibeam sonar [23, 24, 25]. The latter uses aerial photography [26]
and satellite images [22, 27, 28, 29]. The satellite image data have been archived and are available. Thus, remote sensing
using satellite image may be useful to examine temporal changes in seagrass distributions. This study aims to reveal
whether the tsunami damaged seagrass beds by comparing satellite images on Shizugawa Bay before and after the huge
tsunami on 11 March 2011.

¡
'
Tòbi-'shima

Ce6 ooold
±1141iDo
Honshu Island

Sanriku Coast
Shizugawa Bay

Sendai
02011 Europa
0 2011 Cues/
Data C 2011

C 2011 Z

Figure 1. Map showing Sanriku Coast with rias-type bays facing the Pacific Ocean and Shizugawa Bay obtained from Google Earth

2. METHODS OF SATELLITE IMAGE ANALYSIS

To map seagrass beds and other coastal habitats before and after the tsunami, we used two satellite images of GeoEye-1
multi-band imagery on 4 November 2009 before the tsunami and 22 February 2012 after the tsunami. The GeoEye-1
multi-band imagery has four bands: red, green, blue and near-infrared. Near-infrared band and the other three bands
were used for masking the land and classifying bottom substrates, respectively. Classes of the bottom substrates were
composed of seagrass bed, seaweed bed, sandy bottom, rock reef, and turbid or deep sea. We employed a decision tree
method to map seagrass beds and others bottom types in tropical waters developed by Komatsu et al. [30] published in
this proceeding.
Ground-truth was conducted on 19 and 20 October 2011, 30 and 31 May 2012, and 25 and 26 October 2012. We
detected seagrass beds, seaweed beds and others by use of video camera and sidescan sonar. Inquiries to fishermen
about the distributions of seagrass beds before the tsunami were also conducted during field visits to Shizugawa Bay.
Besides the ground surveys, published reports of seagrass bed distributions were also collected because we had no data
of seagrass distributions before the tsunami. The information of seagrass distributions before the tsunami showed that
seagrass beds had been distributed the following sites in Shizugawa Bay: Sodehama, Niranohama, Yoseki and Araita
River mouth (Fig. 2). Thus, we analyzed satellite images on these sites to comparer seagrass beds before and after the
tsunami.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525 85250X-2

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 04/01/2013 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

 Yoriki
AraitaRiver
Niranohama

Sodehama

Figure 2. GeoEye-1 true color satellite image of Shizugawa Bay on 4 November 2009.

3. RESULT
At western side of Araita River mouth, seagrass beds were detected before the tsunami (left panel of Fig. 3). They
disappeared after the tsunami (right panel of Fig. 3). However, the ground truthing survey confirmed that sand beds
remained at this area in October 2011 and May and October 2012.
At Yoriki, seagrass beds were distributed in the center of harbor before the tsunami (left panel of Fig. 4). They
disappeared after the tsunami (right panel of Fig. 4). Ground truthing survey on 29 May didn’t verify seagrass beds, but
that on 25 October 2012 did small seagrass patches near the coast.
At Niranohama, seagrass beds were distributed before and after the tsunami. This was confirmed by the ground surveys
in October 2011, May and October 2012. We could sample seagrass at these surveys.

4. DISCUSSION
Seagrass beds disappeared at the area of bay head of Shizugawa Bay after the tsunami (Araita River mouth,
Sodegahama and Yoriki), but they remained near the bay mouth (Niranohama). Ground truthing verified
seagrass patches at Yoriki near the bay mouth in October 2012. The seagrass beds at the area of bay head
were seriously damaged and have not recovered although sandy bottom remained. On the other hand, some
seagrass beds could remain in Niranohama near the bay mouth and other has been recovering at Yoriki. This
indicates that the tsunami strongly damaged seagrass beds near the area of bay head in Shizugawa Bay. If
sufficient amount of seagrass seeds and sandy bottom remain, seagrass beds can recover after one year
through germination from the seeds. However, it doesn’t occur at Araita River mouth and Sodegahama. It is
suggested that the tsunami waves flush out seeds from these areas to the land or other areas. At Niranohama
and Yoriki, which are near the bay mouth, the tsunami didn’t damage seagrass beds completely. One of the
reasons are geomorphological features of thes areas that are situated behind the point projected from the coast
to the longitudinal axis of Shizugawa Bay near the northeast of the bay mouth. The tsunami waves might be
reflected at this point and be weakened at these areas.
Our study shows that the tsunami completely destroyed seagrass beds at the bay head but near the bay mouth
which were geomorphologically protected from the tsunami in Shizugawa Bay. It also indicates that satellite

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525 85250X-3

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 04/01/2013 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

 remote sensing analysis of archived images is very practical to detect damages by the tsunami or other natural
disturbances with combinations of inquiries, searching references and ground truthing.

Seagrass bed seaweed bed

Seaweed bed

Figure 3. Seagras (green), seaweed (yellow), sandy bed (carnation), turbid or deep water (blue) and land (black) at Araida River mouth
befor (left) and after (right) the tsunami.

Seagrass bed
Seaweed bed

Figure 4. Seagrass beds distribution at Yoriki before (left) and after (right) the tsunami. Colors are the same as in Figure 3.

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525 85250X-4

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 04/01/2013 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study was supported by the grant for Recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake provided by The Mitsui &
Co., Ltd. Environment Fund. Authors thank to Minami-Sanriku Town Government and Shizugawa Branch of Miyagi
Fiheries Cooperative to help our field surveys. This study constitutes a part of studies under the Environment Research
and Technology Development Fund (S9) of the Ministry of the Environment in Japan and the Japan Science and
Technology Agency (JST/CREST).

REFFERENCE

[1] Costanza, R., d’Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S.,
O'Neill, R., Paruelo, J., Raskin, R. G., Sutton, P. and Belt, M. van den., “The value of the world's
ecosystem services and natural capital,” Nature, 387 (6630), 253-260 (1997).
[2] Komatsu, T., “Influence of a Zostera bed on the spatial distribution of water flow over a broad geographical
area,” In: Kuo, J., Phillips, R. C., Walker, D. I. and Kirkman, H. (Eds.) [Seagrass Biology], University of
Western Australia, Nedlands, pp. 111-116 (1996).
[3] Komatsu, T. and Kawai, H., “Measurements of time-averaged intensity of water motion with plaster balls,”
Journal of Oceanography, 48, 353-365 (1992).
[4] Komatsu, T., Umezawa, Y., Nakaoka, M., Supanwanid, C. and Kanamoto, Z., “Water flow and sediment in
Enhalus acoroides and other seagrass beds in the Andaman Sea, off Khao Bae Na, Thailand,” Coastal Marine
Science, 29, 63-38 (2004).
[5] Komatsu, T. and Nakaoka, M., Water flow and sedimentation rate in seagrass beds off Khao Bae Na in Trang
Province, Thailand, Biologia Marina Mediterranea, 7, 240-242, (2000).
[6] Komatsu, T. and Yamano, H., “Influence of seagrass vegetation on bottom topography and sediment
distribution on a small spatial scale in the Dravuni Island Lagoon, Fiji,” Biologia Marina Mediterranea, 7, 243-
246 (2000).
[7] Komatsu, T. and Murakami, S., “Influence of a Sargassum forest on the spatial distribution of water flow,”
Fisheries Oceanography, 3, 256-266 (1994).
[8] Komatsu, T. and Kawai, H. and Sakamoto, W., “Influences of Sargassum forests on marine environments,”
Bulletin on Coastal Oceanography, 27, 115-126 (1990).
[9] Komatsu, T., Ariyama, H., Nakahara, H. and Sakamoto, W., “Spatial and temporal distributions of water
temperature in a Sargassum forest,” Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan, 38, 63-72 (1982).
[10] Komatsu, T., “Temporal fluctuations of water temperature in a Sargassum forest,” Journal of the
Oceanographical Society of Japan, 41, 235-243 (1985).
[11] Komatsu, T., Murakami, S. and Kawai, H., “Some features of jump of water temperature in a Sargassum
forest,” Journal of Oceanography, 52, 109-124 (1995).
[12] Komatsu, T., “Day-night reversion in the horizontal distributions of dissolved oxygen content and pH in a
Sargassum forest,” Journal of Oceanographical Society of Japan, 45, 106-115 (1989).
[13] Komatsu, T. and Kawai, H., “Diurnal changes of pH distributions and the cascading of shore water in a
Sargassum forest,” Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan, 42, 447-458 (1986).
[14] Komatsu, T., “Long-term changes in the Zostera bed area in the Seto Inland Sea (Japan), especially along the
coast of the Okayama Prefecture,” Oceanologica Acta, 20, 209-216 (1997).
[15] Aioi, K. and Komatsu, T., “A preliminary report on the recovery process of Zostera marina in Otsuchi Bay,
Northern Japan after disturbance by large atmospheric depressions,” In: Kuo, J., Phillips, R. C., Walker, D. I.
and Kirkman, H. (Eds.) [Seagrass Biology], University of Western Australia, Nedlands, pp. 319-322 (1996).
[16] Komatsu, T., Sagawa, T., Sawayama, S., Tanoue, H., Mohri, A. and Sakanishi, Y., “Mapping is a key for
sustainable development of coastal waters.” In: Ghenai, C. (Ed.), [Sustainable Development - Education,
Business and Management - Architecture and Building Construction - Agriculture and Food Security], In Tech
Publishing Co., Rijeka, pp. 145-160 (2012). Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-
development-education-business-and-management-architecture-and-building-construction-agriculture-and-
food-security/mapping-is-a-key-for-sustainable-development-of-coastal-waters
[17] Komatsu, T., C. Igarashi, K. Tatsukawa, M. Nakaoka, T. Hiraishi and A. Taira: “Mapping of seagrass and
seaweed beds using hydro-acoustic methods,“ Fisheries Science, 68, sup. I, 580-583 (2002).

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525 85250X-5

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 04/01/2013 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

 [18] Komatsu, T., Mikami, A., Sultana, S., Ishida, K., Hiraishi, T. and Tatsukawa, K., “Hydro-acoustic methods as a
practical tool for cartography of seagrass beds,” Otsuchi Marine Science, 28, 72-79 (2003).
[19] Komatsu, T. and Tatsukawa, K., “Mapping of Zostera marina L. beds in Ajino Bay, Seto Inland Sea, Japan, by
using echo-sounder and global positioning systems,” Journal de Recherche Oceanographique, 23, 39-46 (1998).
[20] Shono, K., Komatsu, T., Sato, Y., Koshinuma, J. and Tada, S., “Integrated hydro-acoustic survey scheme for
mapping of sea bottom ecology,” Oceans’04 MTS/IEEE, 1, 423-427 (2004).
[21] Kamoshita, T., Sato, Y. and Komatsu, T., “Hydro-acoustic survey scheme for sea-bottom ecology mapping,”
Sea Technology, 46(6), 39-43 (2005).
[22] Sagawa, T., Mikami, A., Komatsu, T., Kosaka, N., Kosako, A., Miyazaki, S. and Takahashi, M., “Mapping
seagrass beds in Funakoshi Bay (Sanriku Coast, Japan), by high precision multi-spectral image of IKONOS and
side scan sonar technique,” In: Nishida T., Kaiola, P.J. and Caton. A.E. (Eds.) [GIS/spatial analyses in fisheries
and aquatic sciences, Volume 3], Fishery-Aquatic GIS Research Group, Saitama, pp. 85-96 (2007).
[23] Komatsu, T., Igarashi, C., Tatsukawa, K., Sultana, S., Matsuoka, Y. and Harada, S., “Use of multi-beam sonar
to map seagrass beds in Otsuchi Bay, on the Sanriku Coast of Japan,” Aquatic Living Resources, 16, 223-230
(2003).
[24] Komatsu, T., Mustapha, K. B., Shibata, K., Hantani, K., Ohmura, T., Sammari, C., Igarashi, C. and Abed, A. E.,
“Mapping Posidonia meadows on Messioua Bank off Zarzis, Tunisia, using multi-beam sonar and GIS,” In: by
Nishida T., Kaiola, P.J. and Hollingworth, C.E. (Eds.) [GIS/spatial analyses in fisheries and aquatic sciences,
Volume 2], Fishery-Aquatic GIS Research Group, Saitama, pp. 83-100 (2004).
[25] Komatsu, T., Matsuoka, Y., Shibata, K., Ikemori, T. and Ohkei, N., “Mapping and quantifying a Sargassum
forest off Ossaka (Toyama Bay, the Sea of Japan) by using narrow multibeam sonar and GIS,” In: Nishida T.,
Kaiola, P.J. and Caton. A.E. (Eds.) [GIS/spatial analyses in fisheries and aquatic sciences, Volume 3], Fishery-
Aquatic GIS Research Group, Saitama, pp. 97-114 (2007).
[26] Mikami, A., Komatsu, T., Aoki, M. and Sagwa, T., “Biomass estimation of a mixed-species Sargassum forest
using aerial photography, field survey and Geographical Information Systems,” In: Nishida T., Kaiola, P.J. and
Caton. A.E. (Eds.) [GIS/spatial analyses in fisheries and aquatic sciences, Volume 3], Fishery-Aquatic GIS
Research Group, Saitama, pp. 147-160 (2007).
[27] Sagawa, T., Mikami, A., Komatsu, T., Kosaka, N., Kosako, A., Miyazaki, S. and Takahashi, M., “Mapping
seagrass beds using IKONOS satellite image and side scansonar measurements: a Japanese case study,”
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 29, 281-291 (2008).
[28] Sagawa, T., Boisnier, E., Komatsu, T., Mustapha, K., Hattour, A., Kosaka, N. and Miyazaki, S., “Using bottom
surface reflectance to map coastal marine areas: a new application method for Lyzenga’s model,” International
Journal of Remote Sensing, 31, 3051-3064 (2010).
[29] Komatsu, T., Noiraksar, T., Sakamoto, S., Sawayama, S., Miyamoto, H., Phauk, S. Thongdeee, P., Jualaong S.
and Nishida, S. "Detection of seagrass beds in Khung Kraben Bay, Thailand, using ALOS AVNIR2 image,"
Proceeding of SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing 2012, SPIE, Bellingham WA (2012).

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8525 85250X-6

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 04/01/2013 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms