By Charlie Deitz
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-958656.mp3
Berkshire County – The ecological impacts of the tsunami that engulfed the northeastern Japanese coast line could have devastating results for years to come. WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz consulted with scientists in the Berkshires about what may be in store for the Japanese environment
As officials race to avoid a nuclear disaster, the tsunami that walloped northern Japan has already taken a toll on the native plant life as well as the agricultural systems that make up the region. Joan Edwards is a biology professor with Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, she sets the scene by explaining that the Japanese coast line is very similar to the Northeastern United Stated, with deciduous forests and fresh water rivers.
The combination of salt and water can either drown or dehydrate plant life in the surge's path, that includes native fauna and rice fields, the region hit by the tsunami is reported to produce over a quarter of the nation's rice, Edwards takes it one step further by factoring in all of the industrial waste and debris.
Edwards' colleague Lisa Gilbert is a geologist and oceanographer with Williams College, she currently works at a teaching lab in Mystic Connecticut, while she wasn't there, a team of her students were evacuated from a marine lab on the Oregon Coast the day of the tsunami. She indicates that this represents catastrophic and gradual changes to the region.
Gilbert says it will take years to know exactly how the tsunami and magnitude 8.9 earthquake will shape the landscape of Northern Japan, but it's likely that the make up will be drastically different going forward especially for sensitive coastal ecosystems.
The last observation Gilbert makes deals with a process known as liquefaction, where water deteriorates land shaken by tremors, which happened in the late 1980's in San Francisco and just recently in New Zealand where buildings on this land are swallowed up.
Looking forward, should there be a nuclear fall out, Joan Edwards draws on the experience of Chernobyl, where human impacts were somewhat contained, but wildlife doesn't know how to read signs telling them about radioactive dangers.
While the tsunami had little impact here in the United States, there was one event where a rogue surge swept over a bird sanctuary near the Hawaiian islands wiping out thousands of nesting albatross.