Tsunami-driven Rafting: Transoceanic Species Dispersal and Implications for Marine Biogeography

Published In

Science

Document Type

Citation

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

The 2011 East Japan earthquake generated a massive tsunami that launched an extraordinary transoceanic biological rafting event with no known historical precedent. We document 289 living Japanese coastal marine species from 16 phyla transported over 6 years on objects that traveled thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean to the shores of North America and Hawai‘i. Most of this dispersal occurred on nonbiodegradable objects, resulting in the longest documented transoceanic survival and dispersal of coastal species by rafting. Expanding shoreline infrastructure has increased global sources of plastic materials available for biotic colonization and also interacts with climate change–induced storms of increasing severity to eject debris into the oceans. In turn, increased ocean rafting may intensify species invasions.

Rights

Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Description

The data for this research are available at the Dryad data depository (http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rh01m).

DOI

10.1126/science.aao1498

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25968

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