Pamphlet 2014 english

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The great earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011 brought unprecedented damage to the coast of eastern Japan, from the Tohoku to the Kanto regions. Our everyday landscapes— sandy beaches, echoing with the joyful shouts of children; tidal lats, with their assortment of creatures moving in and out; the coastal forest, evidence of a long period of coexistence between humans and nature; rice paddies, brushed by refreshing breezes—all were transformed completely by the tsunami.

This booklet will relate changes to and the revival of coastal ecosystems observed in Miyagino Ward, Sendai City, and will provide an introduction to that very special “ecotone” environment, created at the boundary region of sea, land, and river.

What form should “a sustainable hometown, adapted to its local natural environment” take? And, what steps should be taken to make this vision a reality? We hope that this booklet will be of some help when considering these issues.

Living together with nature at the edge of the sea,

where life is reviving with such resilience—

The natural world of the seashore

that we have taken for granted —

it’s really a very special place.

Before the great earthquake and tsunami, a 1.5 kilometer wide zone of the Sendai Coast consisted of a patchwork of diverse ecosystems interspersed with human structures, including sandy beaches, tidal lats, seawalls, coastal dunes, coastal forest, wetlands, canals, and agricultural lands. The boundary at which different environments and ecosystems meet is called an “ecotone.” That place where the sea, land, and rivers meet, the “coastal ecotone,” is a constantly shifting environment with a mixture of diverse and unique ecosystems.

Inhabitants of the Sendai Coast have long enjoyed the blessings (ecosystem services) offered by the biodiversity of the coastal ecotone. For example, these coastal ecosystems protect us from salt and lying sand; break the wind; reduce the damage from tsunami and loods; purify water; offer us seasonal foods such as ish,

shellish, and mushrooms; provide irewood for cooking and heating; and provide humus fertilizer from fallen leaves.

This place that we have viewed as everyday and ordinary—this is the coastal ecotone that offers us so many beneits. How did this unique natural environment form?

The Coastal Ecotone

that special place, where the sea, land, and river meet

seawall

river mouth

sandy beach

reed marsh coastal sand dunes

coastal forest

wetland

(back swamps)

agricultural lands

young black pine forest

mature mixed black pine and

broadleaf forest ^canal

tidal flat

4 5

During the 5,000 year river-lood-driven expansion of the Sendai Plain, the sea has pushed back frequently, with storms and huge tsunami. The coastal ecotone has been repeatedly disturbed and rebuilt by the push and pull of these natural phenomena. This dynamic environment is a very special and complex landscape, but makes for a challenging place for human settlement. From about 400 years before present, coastal inhabitants began planting pine on beach uplands to protect their rice paddies and vegetable ields from the salty ocean wind and sand storms. They also dug a canal to facilitate protected coastal transportation. Little by little, over centuries, people manipulated the natural environment to support their settlements and livelihoods. Structures built by hand of natural materials

it easily into the natural environment and became part of our hometown natural setting, in which living organisms lourished. Through natural luctuations, human

activities, and the functions of plants and animals, the coastal ecotone assumed its present shape.

The great earthquake and tsunami of 2011 were, even in the long history of the coastal ecotone, an extremely large disturbance. The resiliencies of human residents, plants and animals, and the ecosystems they comprise, honed through lesser events, were tested as perhaps never before.

As human society recovers, right next door, the natural environment is also recalled to life. We would like to introduce you to nature’s story of recovery.

Oshika Peninsula

Cape Unoo

Kyuu Kitakami River

Naruse River

Nanakita River Natori River

Abukuma River

The Formation of the Sendai Plain

Floods sweep soil and sand from the mountains down river to the ocean, where the tides distribute them along the shoreline, building sandy beaches (see diagram to the right). Beach ridges tell us the story of how the Sendai Plain coastline has marched seaward at the rate of about one meter per year for the past ive thousand years. This process, on- going since the mid-Jomon period, has formed the vast Sendai Plain and its long sandy beach that we see today (see the photograph, bottom right).

The Formation of the Coastal Ecotone

sandy beach

coastal current

wind and waves How beaches are formed

In the struggle of land against sea, the sea is now winning. From the 1960s, beaches along Sendai Bay stopped growing, and in the 1980s net beach erosion became severe. Due to the construction of dams and measures to prevent mudslides, sediments

are no longer carried by the river to the sea, and breakwaters in the harbor block the movement of sand along the coast. Some sandy beaches may be entirely gone within thirty years.

▼The beach near the mouth of Abukuma River. Sediments carried by the river have been greatly reduced, and the beach is shrinking before our eyes.

▲An aerial view of Abukuma River, looking south.

The beautiful coastal scenery of Japan, our coast of “white sand

and blue pines,” is disappearing!?

How beaches are eroded

sandy beach Harbor

dam

Miyagi

Fukushima Iwate Aomori

Yamagata Akita

soil and sand

coastal current

wind and waves breakwater

How was the coastal ecotone formed?

A Unique Environment Created by

Repeated Disturbances

Sendai Bay

The ocean region from the tip of the Oshika Peninsula to Cape Unoo in Fukushima comprises Sendai Bay. Most of the bay’s gentle arc consists of sandy beaches. Inland stretches the Sendai Plain, the largest plain in the Tohoku region. The plain is the work of the Kyuu Kitakami, Naruse, Nanakita, Natori, and Abukuma river systems, whose sediments shape the plain and nurture its natural environment.

Coastline 5_{,000 years} Coa ago

stline _3,10 0 years a_go

C^o as^tli

n^e 2^,0

0⁰ ye^a

rs ^a g^o

C^oa st^lin

e ^1, 00⁰

ye^ar s ^ag

o

Column

What happened to the coastal ecotone after the great tsunami?

Life Nurtured

in the Wake of the Tsunami

Coastal Forest

Coastal Sand Dunes

Surfaces opened to light and life

Abundant pools in new depressions

New habitat amid fallen trees

Surviving trees nurse a new forest See page 12 → See page13 →

See page 14 →

See page 15 →

See pages 10, 11 _→

While the tsunami scraped away much of the dune surface, it also carried in huge quantities of sand and silt. Almost all of the younger, shorter pine forest was knocked down, but here the former dune environment returned.

The coastal ecotone looked like it had been destroyed by the great tsunami. But, day by day, the recovery of organisms gained strength, and coastal ecosystems changed dramatically.

The “recovery” process of the coastal ecotone differs according to place. Some places returned to the way they were before, while others recovered with different species gaining a foothold.

In these greatly changed environments, organisms that remained and newly emerging organisms are mixed together, and damaged ecosystems are returning to life. In this way, the scars left by the tsunami are healing, slowly but surely, in accordance with nature’s changes and nature’s rules.

Where the tsunami swept away tall trees, the stripped surfaces were illed with light, becoming bright sandy spaces open to new life.

Tsunami-eroded holes and hollows from overturned trees formed small pools, ideal for aquatic organisms.

The tsunami left a jumble of fallen trees, which quickly became habitat for resourceful pioneering plants and animals, expanding relationships and enabling ecosystem recovery.

The few standing trees that remain have become “nurse trees,” which hasten the recovery of the forest. They broadcast seeds and provide shelter for birds and other small animals.

Four distinct areas were created in the post-tsunami coastal forest.

See pages 8, 9 _→

Tidal lat systems were greatly damaged by the tsunami and immediately afterward there was no sign of life. But, as time passed, the landforms assumed their former shape, and organisms have gradually increased.

Tidal Flat

8 9 Located along the seashore in the vicinity of a

river mouth or estuary, tidal lats are covered with seawater at high tide, and at low tide they emerge as an area of sand or mud. Gamou Tidal Flat and Idoura Tidal Flat are shoals within lagoons formed by sediment that collects and blocks off a part of an estuary.

In and on the sediments of a tidal lat live many bottom-dwelling and surface-crawling animals (benthos), such as shellish, crabs, and ragworms (Nereididae, polychaete worms). These benthic invertebrates consume organic matter from wastewater as well as plankton that has taken in nutrients that otherwise would cause eutrophication. In this way, the tidal lat acts as a natural

puriication system.

Moreover, when the tide ebbs, migratory birds such as sandpipers and plovers visit the lats, and when the tide rises, small ish swim in. For birds and ish, ragworms and other benthic invertebrates are an abundant source of food. For juvenile ish, the shallow shoals also provide a nursery safe from larger, predatory ish.

waste water

clean water organic

materials

benthic algae, phytoplankton

bottom-dwellers (shellish, crabs, ragworms, etc.)

ishes birds

Swept away by the tsunami or buried in sediments, initially shellish, crabs, and other benthic invertebrates seem to have vanished. Where did these creatures come from in the now recovering tidal lats?

At high tide benthic invertebrates release eggs or larvae into the sea. These organisms loat through the sea as plankton and grow, then once again they return to a tidal lat.

The tidal lat to which larvae return is totally up to the currents and waves. If benthic invertebrates are fortunate enough to survive a disturbance and reach maturity on some random shore or tidal lat, their own larvae will spread out from these points. The connection between tidal lats and the sea is critical for the survival and dispersal of small benthic organisms that call the lats home.

▲Changes to Idoura Tidal Flat.

The sandy area that was scoured by the tsunami and subsided due to the earthquake is slowly recovering, but sediment inlux made the lagoon smaller.

Due to the tremendous force of the tsunami, the shape of tidal lats was completely transformed. But, at Gamou Tidal Flat and Idoura Tidal Flat, the beach was restored by sand carried in by wind and waves, allowing many living things to return to the lagoons. However, the populations are still low. It looks like it will take some time for them to return to their former state.

At irst people thought this place was destroyed, but …

Larvae come in from the sea

a natural puriication

system

_{T idal}

F ^lat

The

What sort of place is a tidal lat?

Before the Disaster

1984

Right after the Disaster

2011 2013

Organisms

that returned

▲Sand-bubbler Crab (Scopimera globosa₎ The carapace width is one centimeter. The sand-bubbler crab digs a hole 20 centimeters deep in the sandy sediment and lives there. The pattern on the body looks just like sand. This crab brings sand to its mouth with pincer claws and ilters out organic materials and microscopic algae. It takes the remaining sand and compresses it on top of its mouth, then grabs it with its claws and tosses it out. This is how sand dumplings, scattered about the mouth of the nest hole, are formed.

The carapace width is one centimeter. This crab prefers to live in muddy areas and, like the sand-bubbler crab, it ilters food from sediment.

▲Chigo-gani crab (Ilyoplax pusilla)

▲Horn Snail (Cerithidea moerchii) This sea snail is about four centimeters long. It crawls about the tidal lat and reed marsh, eating organic matter and microscopic algae. It doesn’t like areas looded with water, so it is sometimes found on reed stalks or climbing up concrete revetments.

Chestnut-colored Sea Snail (Angustassiminea castanea) This is a tiny sea snail, only ive millimeters long. It is found at the base of reed stalks.

▲Reed-marsh Crab (Helice tridens₎ The carapace is three centimeters wide. It lives in a hole dug about 40 centimeters deep in the mud of a tidal lat located near a reed marsh.^When the tide goes out, this crab emerges from its hole, and eats dead plant and animal matter. It is known for its large, strong claws.

▲Iso-shijimi (Nuttallia japonica) The shell is four centimeters wide. These beach clams can be found in sandy sediment that gets covered by the tide.

▲

The coastal sand dunes form from sand carried by waves and blown inland by ocean breezes to settle as dunes. Beach-adapted plants stabilize

dunes, maintaining dune shape and endurance by capturing and holding the sand that is blown in. Sand dunes: swept by gusts of wind, baked by the sun, poor in nutrients, covered by shifting sand. Few organisms can live in this harsh environment, but those that can are adapted to life in the seashore sand and can live nowhere else. The lowers of dune vegetation provide nourishment to insects, and insects pollinate the lowers, thus mutually beneitting each other.

▼Nippon-hanadakahachi (Bembix niponica), in the sand wasp family (Crabronidae), is 2.3 centimeters in length and is known for its long, nose-shaped mouth. It digs a hole in the sand, hauls down insects that will become food for its larvae, and then deposits its eggs. The photo shows a mother wasp carrying a ly of the Anthomyiidae family under its abdomen.

Even in places where it looks like there is nothing but sand, there are organisms adapted to that kind of environment. Swept by the tsunami, a vast area of open land devoid of trees or grasses, appeared to have no life at all. But, here Japanese tiger beetles _were proliferating rapidly. Tiger beetles are meat-eating insects. Their larvae hide in burrows they’ve dug in the ground, and when tiny insects pass by, they are

waiting to grab them. In the sandy soils of the Sendai Bay coast, there are three species of tiger beetles, each adapted to slightly different environments. Because their living environments differ, they don’t have to compete for food and living space.

The coastal dunes may look like a wasteland, but they are home to many organisms that can live nowhere else.

▲

▲ ▲

Eriza-hanmyou (Cicindela elisae) prefers damp places

The front legs have thick hairs in a comb-like pattern to aid in digging sand.

▲Sunamuguri-hyotanzoumushi (Scepticus tigrinus), a true weevil, is about 7 millimeters long with a rounded body. Pushing aside grains of sand, it works its way into sandy soil.

Kuchinaga-haribae (Prosena sp.), a 1.2 centimeter tachinid ly, extends its long proboscis to suck nectar from inu-senburi (Swertia diluta var. tosaensis). Shimofuri-chibikohanabachi

(Lasioglossum frigidum),

“the tiny frost-sprinkling bee”, is a solitary beach bee of the family Halictidae. The body is only ive millimeters long. It is collecting pollen from the beach silvertop.

▲

　Beach silvertop (Glehnia littoralis) is visited by many insects.

▲

Hama-nigana (Ixeris repens), in the dandelion family, blooms non-stop from early summer to late autumn and is an essential lower for dune insects.

▲Shiroobiharanaga-tsuchibachi (Megacampsomeris schulthessi_{), is 2-3} centimeters in length. It is sucking nectar from a beach morning glory (Calystegia soldanella) and becoming covered with pollen. This solitary wasp will locate the larvae of the scarab beetle in the soil and deposit her eggs there.

▲

▲A cross section of accumulated sediments. White sand brought in by the tsunami sits above darker sand.

Two years and three months after the disaster, many types of native coastal plants covered the broad sandy area.

　Kawara-hanmyou (Chaetoera laetescripta₎ is found only on sandy beaches. Populations of these beetles are shrinking nation-wide with the loss of sandy beaches.

Koniwa-hanmyou (Cicindela transbaicalica) likes sandy soil dotted with grass. There was a great proliferation of this species in the sandy area left by the tsunami.

The coastal dune ecosystem was damaged by the tsunami, and at the same time it was buried by sediments and debris brought in by the waves. At irst there was a drastic reduction in living organisms. Insects that live on the dune surface were especially hard hit, and they disappeared almost entirely.

But, in no time, plants began to grow from subterranean organs in the sand and from seeds carried in by the wind and waves, and, following right behind, insects reestablished populations. Unfortunately, the low black pine forest on the landward side of the dunes was swept down by the tsunami and withered. In this area of sandy soil, organisms peculiar to sand dune environments as well as pine seedlings soon lourished.

A scene right after the tsunami. Almost all the trees of the low pine forest, which took the full thrust of the tsunami, were knocked over.

S ^{and D unes}

C ^oastal

an arid zone of scorching

heat

What sort of place is a coastal dune zone?

coastal forest sand dunes

sand

beach

wind

The rebirth of natural sand dunes

Two years ^later

An important

relationship

between

flowers, insects,

and sand

In a place where we think there is nothing at all,

we can ind some special organisms

12 13

With land subsidence, there were even places where former marshes or ponds greatly expanded. These places provided a refuge for shellish, crabs, and the like that had been swept in by the tsunami. It’s important that we leave them a route to return to the tidal lats.

Two months after the tsunami. In the central wetland reeds that grew here before the tsunami are beginning to grow back. Around the pond the trunks of trees knocked down by the tsunami are noticeable.

Two years and four months after the tsunami. The area is full of reeds (Phragmites australis) and ^other wetland plants. In the open land in front of the pond new shoots are emerging.

▲The coastal forest was not entirely lattened. Strangely, trees that remained standing were arrayed in a stripe pattern, giving the appearance of the teeth of a comb.

Four species of larvae

Within the ecotone of the Sendai Bay coast, there was a coastal forest dominated by tall pine, but which included a great variety of other trees. Within the forest were open areas of meadows, ponds, and swamps. These different areas created a patchwork environment.

The earthquake and tsunami caused tall trees to fall, transforming the appearance of the forest. But, seeds remained alive in the soil, and if you look closely, small trees, grasses, and other lowering plants are appearing one after another and beginning to grow bigger on the tsunami-swept ground. In the patchwork left by the tsunami, organisms are moving into places to which they are specially adapted. We will introduce four of those areas.

After the earthquake and tsunami, only a few species were seen in these pools, such as water leas (Daphnia), dragonlies such as the wandering glider (Pantala lavescens), and the haiiro diving beetle (Eretes griseus). But, in no time at all, as soon as water collected, a waterside world quickly developed of many kinds of species. These were tiny ecosystems that dried up when rain was scarce, but they played an important role as homes, as refuges from the disaster, and as rest stops for organisms moving between areas.

In dense forests, the branches and leaves spread out, blocking light, and light levels on the ground are always dim. But, when the tsunami caused huge trees to fall, and light was shed on the ground, seedlings and saplings that had long waited their turn began growing up rapidly, and seeds that had been sleeping in the soil

suddenly germinated. The forest’s

“recovery” gained strength as it progressed.

Bowl-shaped holes formed at the base of large trees uprooted by the tsunami. The earthquake caused ground subsidence in many areas, and these hollows illed with water.

13 12

a patch^work of trees^{, forbs,}

grasse^{s, and}

ponds

_{F orest}

C ^oastal The

What sort of place is the coastal forest?

Surfaces opened to

light and life

Two years ^later

Abundant pools in

new depressions

Haiiro Diving Beetle (Eretes griseus₎

Lesser Emperor Dragonly (Anax parthenope)

Wandering Glider Dragonly (Pantala lavescens)

White-tailed Skimmer Dragonly (Orthetrum albistylum) Forktail Damselly

(Ischnura asiatica₎

Marsh Bluetail Damselly (Ischnura senegalensis)

Edogawa-mizugomatsubo (Stenothyra edogawaensis)

Kurobenkei-gani (Chiromantes dehaani)

Hama-gani

(Chasmagnathus convexus)

After the tsunami the northern goshawk (Accipter gentilis), a bird of prey, was able to breed in the remnant forest. Each year it builds a nest in a grove of trees that has survived the tsunami and raises its young.

In order for the northern goshawk, an upper trophic-level predator, to survive, it needs an abundance of prey, particularly small birds and mammals. The fact that the goshawk was able to reproduce, even in the changed post- tsunami environment, indicates that ecosystem richness was returning.

▲A nisematsuno- shirahoshizoumushi (Shirahoshizo insidiosus₎ that has just emerged from its pupa. The weevil larvae dig tunnels directly under the bark and grow as they consume wood.

▲A dead tree riddled with holes. They were made by woodpeckers, which drill through the bark to reach insects.

▲Oo-togarihanabachi (Coelioxys fenestrate_). This kleptoparasitic leafcutting bee watches for an opportunity to enter the rooms built by the giant resin bee in order to

　A northern goshawk chick looks out from its nest.

In 2011, the year of the great earthquake and tsunami, there were quite a few plants that bore lowers and fruit, even though they were still standing in seawater or partially covered with sand. Seeds from black pine (_Pinus thunbergii) and red pine (Pinus

densilora) were scattered by the wind. There are many seaside plants that provide fruit to animals and then depend on them to disperse the seeds. Areas in which these plants remained were a life-support for animals returning after the tsunami.

Although, at irst glance, we thought nature along the coast had been destroyed, actually many organisms have survived, moved in, and resumed their busy interactions.

From the year after the great disaster, we began to see many insects from the longhorn beetle and weevil families, which consume dead wood. Soon after, other insects appeared that ate or parasitized those beetles and weevils. And, not long afterward, bees appeared that enlarged the holes dug by the previous insects to use for nests, followed by bees that reused those nests, and bees that took over both the nests and their contents as food. In this manner,

the relationships among the insects became more and more complex.

Insects that eat dead trees have various preferences depending on the degree of freshness or decay and the part of the tree (trunk or branch, inner wood or bark). Once fungi started breaking down the wood, insects that like to eat fungi appear. Before a dead tree returns to the soil, it serves as food and shelter for innumerable organisms and is used by them over and over for many years.

New habitat amid fallen trees

The tsunami left piles of downed trees, and some dead trees remained standing in pooled seawater. Are these dead trees nothing but a nuisance?

Dead trees make possible relationships among living things

▲Giant Resin Bee (Megachile sculpturalis_). It uses tunnels made by other insects in dead wood and builds rooms in them for its larvae. Oo-togarihanabachi

steal nests from giant resin bees

Stink bugs eat fungi

Fungus beetles eat fungi Fungi break

down wood

Larvae of longhorn beetles and weevils eat wood

Woodpeckers eat beetle larvae

Japanese carpenter bees reuse holes of beetle larvae

Giant resin bees reuse holes of Japanese carpenter bees

Surviving trees nurse a new forest

Even a few standing trees

can be critical for birds

Seed dispersal by animals that help the forest grow

A grape family liana (Vitis icifolia var. lobata)

Asian Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus₎ Memorial Rose

(Rosa wichuraiana)

Braconid wasps parasitize beetle larvae

16

What happened to all of these organisms, whose resilience had been honed by a long history of tsunami and loods? Within three years of the great earthquake and tsunami, the recovery of many species was evident to anyone who looked. But, life along the coast now faces a formidable threat: human reconstruction projects.

Soon after the tsunami, the roar of huge machinery began reverberating up and down the Sendai coast. Now, because of our own large-scale recovery work, the quiet, natural recovery of coastal

organisms is being extinguished at one place after another. Preparation of the land for a mounded pine plantation has proceeded all along the coast at high speed, without suficient consideration for recovering life. Faced with the speed and scale of ground preparation and mounding of soil, many organisms and the habitats on which they depend may not survive.

We, who have made a living over generations hand in hand with these coastal ecosystems, must

now focus our attention on them, devising and implementing “a recovery for living together” that will sustain their diversity and function for future generations.

２

３

４

５

A grey-tailed tattler (Heteroscelus brevipes) pecks for food in a tidal lat strewn with items that have drifted ashore.

In a wetland close to the shoreline a rare plant, sago pondweed

(Potamogeton pectinatus) supports a blue damselly (Cercion sexlineatum). A scarab beetle (Polyphylla albolineata) that appeared the irst summer following the tsunami.

A tiny beach bee, Shimofuri-chibikohanabachi (Lasioglossum frigidum_), covered with the pollen of the beach rose (Rosa rugosa_).

A mudlat crab, kurobenkei-gani (Chiromantes dehaani) takes up residence in a pool of water that formed by the roots of a fallen tree.

１

２

３ 1. At the water’s edge, a seawall divides the beach.

2. The coast has been mounded for a plantation of pines.

3. Black pine seedlings suffer the effects of strong wind, standing water, and invasive plants.

Let’s live together, recover together,

and pass our coastal ecosystems on to future generations

Translator’s Message

When I visited Sendai City in 2016, I was struck by the vibrant recovery in progress of an interconnected patchwork of sandy beach, dune, coastal forest, and wetland habitats at the Minami-Gamou Ecotone Monitoring Site. A new 7.2 meter high seawall blocked connectivity to the sea, and inland of the wall, recovering forest and wetlands had been buried by a 3.2-meter high by 200-meter wide mound of highly compacted soil for a coastal defense plantation project. But here, at what remained of the research site, one could witness the natural recovery of the landscape after the great tsunami of March 11, 2011. The Minami-Gamou Ecotone Monitoring Site and nearby Gamou and Idoura Tidal Flats provide an opportunity for the public to learn how ecosystems may be affected by great disturbances and how ecological memory can help ecosystem recovery. Since late 2011 the Monitoring Network has produced scientiic papers and outreach　 materials and has conducted a variety of outreach activities for the general public. The Network is partnering with local citizens, in the hope that a better understanding of coastal ecology will contribute to a deeper sense of place and foster new visions for the future.

Karen Colligan-Taylor, Ph.D. University of Alaska Fairbanks

１

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Minami-Gamou/Sandy Beach Coastal Ecotone Monitoring Network

Acknowledgements. Monitoring and publications have been inancially supported by Tohoku Gakuin University during 2012-2017; and by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (S1103002, S0801024), JSPS (24510332, 24810024, 25830153), the Ministry of

4

6 349

286 48

Sendai

Tagajyo Shiogama

Natori

Iwanuma

Sendai Airport

Minami-Gamou Ecotone Monitoring Site

Gamou Tidal Flat

Idoura Tidal Flat

0 1 2 3km

Torinoumi Tidal Flat N

Tohoku Main Line Tohoku Shinkansen

Senseki Line

Joban Line

45

4 Tohoku E^xp

re^ss way

Sendai Nanb_{u Road}

Se^nd ai ^T

ob^u Ex^pr

essw^ay

Abukum

a River

Natori _Rive r

Nanakita Riv_er

Miyagi

Sendai City

L O C A T I O N M A P

https://sites.google.com/site/ ecotonesendai/

Writing and photography: Editing: Design and illustration: English translation:

Minami-Gamou/

Sandy Beach Coastal Ecotone Monitoring Network

(^Abbrev: Minami-Gamou Ecotone Monitoring Network) We are a group studying the process of autonomous recovery of the coastal ecotone following the damage inlicted by the great March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The Minami-Gamou Monitoring Site, located in Shinhama, Miyagino-ku, Sendai City, is a large research area of diverse ecosystems. Because it contains areas left relatively untouched

by reconstruction projects as well as experimental plots for habitat restoration, the site contributes to our knowledge of

post-tsunami recovery, offers suggestions for ecosystem- based disaster risk reduction, and provides ideas about how we might rebuild our communities. We are trying

to protect this site and make good use of it by offering outreach activities and other learning

opportunities.

A Message from Life at the Edge of the Sea First Japanese edition

Second Japanese printing First English edition

Goukon Katsuo, Hara Keitarou, Hirabuki Yoshihiko, Hiraizumi Hideki, Igarashi Yuri, Matsumoto Hideaki, Suzuki Takao, Tomita Mizuki,

Akatani Kana, Hirabuki Yoshihiko, Kato Megumi, Murata Asako Akatani Kana (Ikimono Paretto/Palette of Life)　

Colligan-Taylor Karen (krcolligantaylor@alaska.edu) March 11, 2014

March 15, 2014 July 31, 2017

c/o Dr. Hirabuki Yoshihiko, Tohoku Gakuin University (yhira@mail.tohoku-gakuin.ac.jp)

Credits (surname irst):