Tsunami-driven Rafting: Transoceanic Species Dispersal and Implications for Marine Biogeography
Sponsor
Research support was provided by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan through the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES); National Science Foundation (Division of Ocean Science, Biological Oceanography), NSF-OCE-1266417, 1266234, 12667, and 1266406; Oregon Sea Grant; and the Smithsonian Institution.
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.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1126/science.aao1498
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25968
Citation Details
Carlton, J.T. 2017. Tsunami-driven rafting: Transoceanic species dispersal and implications for marine biogeography. Science, 357(6358):1402-1406.
Description
The data for this research are available at the Dryad data depository (http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rh01m).