The impact of environmental change on the marine phytoplankton

理解当前全球变化的最具挑战性的任务之一是解开和量化所涉及的组件和过程。虽然通过将地球主要视为一个物理或化学系统而成功地模拟了若干过程，但对生物圈（例如海洋生态系统）中全球变化的定量描述远远落后。然而，对未来气候变化的任何评估都需要了解自然变率的全部范围。因此，我的研究旨在对气候变化如何影响海洋生态系统，特别是海洋浮游植物有一个基本的了解。例如，目前对长期和短期气候变化如何影响海洋浮游植物的生产、多样性和进化知之甚少。在接下来的五年里，我将继续我的研究活动，确定海洋浮游植物如何受到快速环境变化的影响，如人为污染、厄尔Niño南方涛动（ENSO）和现代海洋以及全新世的季风。这项研究包括对气候档案的分析，如来自关键地区的层状沉积物，这些沉积物敏感地记录了这些快速的气候变化（例如，加利福尼亚湾、卡里亚科盆地和阿拉伯海）。我最近开发的最适合超高分辨率沉积物分析的技术和代理（例如，基于球岩石形态和化学的温度和盐度代理）的应用保证了高质量的数据。以这种方式获得的知识对于评估未来全球变化对海洋生态系统的影响至关重要。

One of the most challenging tasks in understanding current global change is the untangling and quantification of the involved components and processes. While several processes have been successfully modelled by treating the Earth mainly as a physical or chemical system, the quantitative characterization of global change in the biosphere, for example in the marine ecosystem, is lagging far behind. However, any assessment of future climate change requires knowledge of the full range of natural variability. Therefore, my research is designed towards a fundamental understanding of how climate change affects the marine ecosystem, particularly the marine phytoplankton. For example, little is currently known about how long-term and short-term climate variability affect the production, diversity and evolution of marine phytoplankton. During the next five years I will continue my research activities on determining how marine phytoplankton has been affected by rapid environmental changes such as anthropogenic pollution, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Monsoons in the modern ocean as well as during the Holocene. This research involves the analysis of climate archives such as laminated sediments from key localities that sensitively record these rapid climate changes (e.g., the Gulf of California, the Cariaco Basin, and the Arabian Sea). The application of my recently developed techniques and proxies most suitable for ultra high resolution analysis of sediments (e.g., temperature and salinity proxies based on coccolith morphology and chemistry) guarantees high quality data. The knowledge obtained in this way will be essential in assessing the impact of future global change on the marine ecosystem.