Establishment of the concept of trait space for marine phytoplankton and future projections with climate change

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18H04130
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 63:Environmental analyses and evaluation and related fields
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Yamanaka Yasuhiro 北海道大学, 地球環境科学研究院, 教授 (40242177)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 平田 貴文 北海道大学, 北極域研究センター, 特任准教授 (80576231)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 植物プランクトン / 海洋大循環モデル / 炭素循環 / CN比 / 環境適応

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have introduced the mechanism by which oceanic phytoplankton acclimatize to environmental changes into a numerical simulation and succeeded in significantly increasing the reproducibility of the observed biomass distribution. In the deep sea, where light is insufficient, phytoplankton acclimates to increase the amount of chlorophyll in their cells in order to increase the amount of light they acquire. By properly representing the acclimation process, we were able to improve the reproducibility of the chlorophyll distribution in the ocean. By introducing changes in the carbon/nitrogen ratio in phytoplankton cells due to acclimation, we were also able to improve the reproducibility of the distribution of carbon/nitrogen ratios in the ocean.

Free Research Field

海洋科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

海洋の植物プランクトンは光合成によって二酸化炭素を吸収して有機物を形成し、その死骸が海洋深層へ沈降することで、炭素を海洋深層へ貯留する役割を担っている。この光合成による二酸化炭素吸収は将来の気候変動に伴って変化することが予測されており、予測には数値シミュレーションが用いられている。我々の研究は、現在環境下における再現性を向上させることによって、数値シミュレーションの信頼性を大きく向上せた。