Japan JSPS Program: Using Molluscan Shells to Interpret Antarctic Nearshore Environmental Variations During the Holocene

该奖项将为俄亥俄州立大学的保罗·伯克曼博士与吉田义夫博士在日本国家极地研究所进行为期12个月的合作研究提供补充支持。伯克曼和吉田将比较扇贝和蛤蜊的现代和化石样本，以解释全新世时期南极洲的环境和海平面变化。现代扇贝和蛤蜊的壳提供了它们的环境条件记录，反映了近岸海洋环境中与冰川融水流影响相关的水化学变化。伯克曼和吉田认为，这些相同的水化学特征存在于南极洲周围的软体动物化石中，可以用来解释过去的冰川融化和海平面变化。科考队将在日本南极科考队运营的南极研究设施Syowa站附近收集A. colbecki和L. elliptica的现代和化石样本，并将在日本对贝壳进行分析。Miyai博士在解释南极海岸地貌方面的经验补充了Berkman博士在南极扇贝方面的专业知识。他们的合作将有助于确定南极冰盖在过去一万年中对地球气候变化的反应，以及它们如何导致全球海豹水平的变化。

This award will provide supplementary support to enable Dr. Paul Berkman of the Ohio State University to conduct collaborative research with Dr. Yoshio Yoshida for 12 months at the National Institute of Polar Research in Japan. Berkman and Yoshida will compare modern and fossil samples of scallops and clams in order to interpret the environmental and sea level variations of Antarctica during the Holocene period. The shells of modern scallops and clams provide a record of their environmental conditions, reflecting hydrochemical variations associated with glacial meltwater stream impacts in the nearshore marine environment. Berkman and Yoshida believe that these same hydrochemical signatures exist in fossil molluscs around Antarctica and can be used to interpret glacial melting and sea level variations in the past. The team will collect modern and fossil samples of A. colbecki and L. elliptica near Syowa Station, an Antarctic research facility run by the Japan Antarctic Research Expedition, and will analyze the shells back in Japan. Dr. Miyai's experience in interpreting Antarctic coastal geomorphology complements Dr. Berkman's expertise in Antarctic scallops. Their collaboration will help determine how the Antarctic ice sheets have responded to changes in the earth's climate for the past 10,000 years and how they have contributed to the changes in seal level throughout the world.