Ecology
The earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile in 2010 led to significant and unexpected changes in the ecosystems of these regions, which gave scientists the opportunity to explore how natural disasters can affect life and how rising sea levels can affect the environment.
As a result of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, the coastline where most of the country's population lives has changed. The earthquake was followed by a powerful tsunami, the wave height reached 10 meters, which, of course, led to chaos on the coast: more than 500 people died, 1,200 or more people were injured, and about 370,000 houses were located destroyed or damaged.
There is no doubt that earthquakes of this level always have dramatic consequences for ecosystems. However, if scientists do not have data on the environment in the area before the earthquake, which is most often the case, it is difficult for them to somehow understand how the disaster affected ecosystem. In the case of the 2010 earthquake in Chile, scientists had data that was collected shortly before the disaster and over the next 10 months.
Chile's sandy beaches are showing major changes. In particular, the coastline has changed slightly, and this has had a significant impact on the local ecosystem. The ecosystem's response was highly dependent on changes in land levels, on how mobile animals were, on the type of coastline, and on the degree of human change in the coast. For example, in places where part of the beach was under water and no protective structures were built to prevent water from advancing on the coast, living in the tidal zone (that is, in the zone, which sinks under water at high tides and is exposed at low tide) living organisms have completely disappeared because their habitat is completely submerged under water.
The most unexpected effects were observed on elevated sandy beaches. Previously, tidal species avoided these beaches due to the fact that breakwaters were built here. After the earthquake, these views quickly filled these areas, which rose slightly above the breakwaters.
“Plants have been coming back to places where we know they haven't been around for a long time,” said researcher Jenny Dugan, a biologist at UC Santa Barbara. Of course, this is not the first environmental response that can be expected from strong earthquakes and tsunamis.”
Research can help us understand what changes should be expected after natural disasters. This is especially important for those who live near the coast. Other earthquakes will occur off the Pacific coast, although scientists can't predict exactly when, but at least they know what to expect next.