CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

5.1

Impact of Japanese Tsunami on Temperature

The changes of sea water temperature that are recorded by each Argo float can be studied by analyzing the temperature profile in Figure 4.1. The trend of temperature changes at the surface layer is clearly shown where all three different locations show uniform pattern of decrease in temperature after the Japanese Tsunami on March 2011. In addition, the cooling of SST up to 2 C is recorded in the post-tsunami, as shown in Table 4.2. In fact, the present result is totally in agreement with previous studies where the significant decrease in temperature took place after the tsunami incident.

Ouzounov & Freund, (2003) proposed that with the chaotic turbulence and upwelling are the main causes contributing to the decrease in SST after tsunami events. In 2005, SST was noticed to decrease in a study done by Luis et al., (2005) in Bay of Bengal after the tsunami event in 2004. Mikada et al., (2006) had revealed that SST was decreased by 0.5 C after the tsunami generated by 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake in Japan. Chakravarty, (2006) had pointed out that the upward movement of cooler bottom water and the spreading over surface water did happen after the Boxing Day of 2004 tsunami generated by Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. Chakravarty, (2009),

again, observed the obvious cooling of sea surface temperature due to the mixing of cold water in the vertical column of the ocean after the tsunami generated by Sumatra-Andaman earthquake.

Again, Singh et al., (2007) found negative temperature variations in SST after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in their multi-sensor studies. After the tsunami on 26th December 2004, Reddy et al., (2009) were able to construct the temperature profiles by using Argo floats data. Here, they discovered a significant decrease in SST by 2-3 C (Reddy et al., 2009). Also, Singh & Aung, (2009) had studied a pre- and post-tsunami research in Solomon Islands on April 2007, and water temperature was found to have a decrease of 0.4 C after the extreme event (Singh & Aung, 2009).

5.2

Impact of Japanese Tsunami on Salinity

After the Japanese Tsunami event happened on 11 March 2011, the change of sea surface salinity (SSS) before and after the extreme event has been recorded and presented in the Table 4.3. SSS has been recorded to be varying from -0.1 to +0.3 pss in post-tsunami. Float 1 has shown the decrease of salinity which is different from the result obtained by Float 2 and 3. This has proven that Nichol et al., (2004) was right, where in their study, Sedimentary evidence for tsunami on the northeast coast of New Zealand , there was a rise in salinity recorded after the tsunami which is totally oppose the finding of Leclerc et al., (2007) that is the decreasing of water salinity after the Boxing-day tsunami event in 2004. In short, salinity changes or varies before and after the tsunami event. According to Reddy et al., (2005), the salinity was found to be increased after the tsunami on December 2004.

According to Talley, (2002), salinity varies geographically and with time. Salinity is decreased when fresh water input occurs over the sea surface due to

precipitation as well as river inflow. Also, there are few factors that are able to increase the salinity like evaporation or by-product of sea-ice formation. In this context, as shown in Table 4.3, the result obtained has shown the variation of sea surface salinity after the Tsunami incident, that is from -0.1 to +0.3 pss. The trend of the result obtained is actually similar as the result from Reddy et al., (2009).

Unlike Float 1, Float 2 and 3 are located near to the shoreline and they show the increase in salinity after the Japanese Tsunami although large amount of sea water (salt) is left over coastal areas due to inundation. This can be explained with the winter season in Japan where sea ice formation outweighs the inundation of sea water, contributing to the increase in salinity. Besides, due to the turbulence of whole water column as tsunami waves passed by, there is mixing of bottom and surface water. This indirectly implies that the content of surface water is enriched by the bottom water and thus, the sea surface salinity increases.

Apart from that, Float 1 is located in deeper ocean, showing a decrease in salinity in post-tsunami. This is can be related with the second largest ocean current, Kuroshio Current. In this case, Kuroshio Current conduces to the minimum salinity (Chen & Huang, 1996). This is totally agreed by Yoshimura et al., (1999) where they had pointed out that there is mixing with low-salinity coastal waters at the surface in the area north of the Kuroshio Current. In addition, Float 2 and 3 are less affected by the Kuroshio Current effect because of their coordination which is nearer to the Japan landmass.

5.3

Phytoplankton Blooming

It is noticed that the increasing in salinity is more significant when comparing the changes of salinity before and after the tsunami incident. Here, the increasing of SSS is known to give some impacts in marine ecosystem. Salinity in ocean water is contributed or affected by various chemical ions for instance chloride, sodium, sulfate, magnesium, calcium and others. In this case, these chemical ions are important components for the growth of phytoplankton and serve as the fundamental element in food web of marine ecosystem. Due to the extreme event, turbulence of whole water column happens and introduces the vertical mixing of bottom water and

surface water. Thus, more chemical ions are spreading in the water column. In other words, the amount of nutrient increases especially in surface water. This gives certain impacts in influencing the primary production, conducted by phytoplankton in the ocean.

The primary producers (phytoplankton) need a certain range of nutrient and adequate sunlight as well as carbon dioxide to carry out the essential process, that is photosynthesis. Normally, in an area with higher nutrients level, phytoplankton exist in a huge number and the primary productivity is relatively higher than usual (Garrison, 2007). This is supported by Babin et al., (2004), where large phytoplankton blooms were observed when the nutrients that were mixed into the surface layer.

Many hypotheses have been confirmed where there will be plankton blooming during post-tsunami. For example, after the tsunami happened on 26th December 2004, an observation of increase in chlorophyll concentration was also found in a few coastal earthquakes (Singh et al., 2006). Apart from that, high Chlorophyll-a concentration were found prior to the two tsunamis caused by earthquakes of 26 December 2004 and 28 March 2005 which indirectly indicated the existing of huge amount phytoplankton right after tsunami incident.

The primary production conducted by phytoplankton gives some impacts to the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) which is an important greenhouse gas that play significant role in climate change (Lin et al., 2003). Also, phytoplankton is known to producing about half of the oxygen in the world as well as absorbing Dissolved Organic Carbon (DIC) through its photosynthesis activity. Deficit of DIC eventually occur in the upper ocean. Atmospheric CO2 is then influx into the ocean to balance the carbon system in the ocean (Zimmerman & Emanuel, 2010). Thus, primary production in the ocean plays an important role in maintaining the equilibrium of the earth environment system.

5.4

Changes of Thermocline Depths

The Japanese Tsunami has greatly altered the whole structure of the ocean. In this context, the thermocline layer is included where the changes of thermocline depth, recorded by Float 1, 2 and 3 have been shown in Table 4.6. On one hand, the thermocline depths have shown to be shallowed from 200.05 m to 150.05 m and 384.00 m to 203.00 m respectively in Float 1 and 2. On the other hand, there is a deepening of thermocline depth recorded by Float 3, that is from 359.85 m to 460.10 m. In this case, the deepening of 100.25 m in thrmocline depth which is recorded by Float 3 is less significant when comparing the shallowing of 50.00 m and 181.00 m of thermocline depths, recorded by Float 1 and 2 respectively. Thus, the strength of themocline is said to be weakened generally. By taking Float 2 as representative, the thermocline has been weakened for about 47.1% after the tsunami incident.

5.5

Changes of Halocline Depths

Before discussing about the changes of halocline depth in detail, there is an interesting finding which needs to be taken care of, the double halocline. Three floats have recorded the same pattern of salinity profiles which have been plotted in Figure 4.2. In general, the positive double haloclines start approximately at 700 m from the surface water. In this case, Wen et al., (2005) also found double halocline near to the southeastern of Nansha Island. Monsoon pattern and local circulation were believed to have close relationship with the double halocline (Wen et al., 2005). From previous studies, Pacific origin water is known to be the primary factor contributing the formation of the double halocline structure.

However, the main concern of this study is the upper halocline as it is nearer to the surface of water, which means it plays more important role to the marine ecosystem. From the Table 4.9, the halocline depths have been shown shallowed in Float 1 and 2, which are -169.85 m and -62.00 m respectively. While Float 3 shows the deepening of halocline depth from 500.25 m to 520.30 m. In overall, the shallowing of halocline depths outweighs the deepening one. Thus, the shallowing of halocline is more significant comparatively. In other way of explanation, the strength of haloclines shown by Float 1 and 2 are weakened for about 59.6% and 23.6%

respectively.

5.6

Impacts on Marine Ecosystem

The marine ecosystem is definitely affected when the ocean structure (thermocline and halocline depths) has been significantly altered. Olla & Davis (1990) had proven that fish will adapt themselves by moving to the warmer upper water column instead of staying colder bottom water column when large thermocline layer (sudden change of water temperature) occurred. Thus, this has clearly shown how thermocline layer influences the vertical migration of aquatic organisms.

Haddock (important food fish) were reported distributing predominantly at the thermocline layer coincident with the high zooplankton biomass. Here, juvenile gadids were found to be migrating to that thermocline layer. The reason was believed to be related to food availability over the thermocline layer (Neilson & Perry, 1990). In the study of behavioral responses of juvenile walleye Pollock, done by Olla & Davis, (1990), Theragra chalcogramma Pallas (juvenile walleye pollock) were found to descend into cold water when food was introduced below the thermocline in the experimental tank. Again, this has proven that marine organism is influenced with food availability which is correlated with the thermocline layer.

In the study of Reaction of Plankton Organisms to Water Stratification , Harder, (1968) had revealed the relationship of alteration in salinity with the behavioral response of zooplankton. In this context, there is a physical barrier in the water column which is believed resulted from the density and viscosity, associated with salinity. In addition, less saline water is unfavorable to the plankton organism because they have to swim harder and easily to sink, due to less dense and less viscous of water column. This is the reason why different halocline layer was found to have different types of marine organism (DOD, 2005). This is, too, agreed by Lougee et al. (2002) where density and viscosity acts as selective pressure because less energy may be required for zooplankton to remain suspended in the more saline dense water.