U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science: Cenozoic Environmental Variability in Antarctic Coastal Areas

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9603369 Berkman This award supports a three year collaborative research project between Professor Paul Berkman of the Ohio State University and Professor Kazuomi Hirakawa of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. This project will undertake a study of Cenozoic environmental variability in Antarctic coastal areas. The relevance of Antarctic coastal areas is that they contain integrated environmental records of the glaciological, geological, chemical and biological variability around the continent - in the transition zone which reflects the most immediate interaction between the ice sheets, sea level and climate. The major goals of this project are: 1) develop interdisciplinary approaches which integrate the biology and chemistry of marine macrofossils in a glacial geomorphological context for the purpose of interpreting Cenozoic ice-sheet, sea-level and climate impacts; and 2) facilitate interactions among Japanese and American scientists along with members of the international scientific community who are investigating the Cenozoic dynamics between the Antarctic ice sheets, sea level and climate. To facilitate distribution of the results of this research, several workshops will be held involving researchers from the United States (Ohio State University, the University of California), and Japan (Hokkaido University, Rissho University, Shimane University, Nagoya University, Shizuoka University and the National Institute of Polar Research). Understanding the environmental dynamics around Antarctica, which currently contains 90% of the ice on Earth, is necessary for accurately predicting global environmental changes which may occur in the future. The analyses and cooperation between the Japanese and American researchers will contribute to our understanding of the role of Antarctica in global change. ***