Mangroves Adaptation to changes of environment: Case study on Nias Earthquake, North Sumatera, March 2005

Abstract

Ten years ago 9.3 Mw earthquake at Andaman Islands, December 26, 2004 accompanied by tsunami events in the region of Aceh causing tremendous losses, unprecedented for human life in coastal areas of Indonesia and neighbouring countries. A few months later, on March 28, 2005, 8.7 Mw earthquake has occurred, hundreds of hectares of coral reefs ecosystem were lifted into the terrestrial, many corals died of drought and collapsed by quake vibration. Similarly most of the mangroves moved away from the shoreline due to uplifted land. The aim of the study is to monitor the progress of the coastal ecosystems especially adaptation of mangroves due to change of their both physical and ecological environments. The methods used in the research were analysis of landasat imageries throught the remote sensing tecnique and coastal profile measurements. Series of field researchs were done on Augustus 2005, Desember 2014 and Desember 2015.  The research results showed mangroves that has moved away from the coastline, mostly died due to drought while some survive and develop toward the coastline.