The response of marine microplankton to climate changes

理解当前全球变化的最具挑战性的任务之一是对所涉及的组成部分和过程进行梳理和量化。虽然通过将地球主要作为一个物理或化学系统来处理，已经成功地模拟了若干过程，但对生物圈（例如海洋生态系统）的全球变化的定量描述却远远落后。然而，对未来气候变化的任何评估都需要了解自然变异的全部情况。因此，我的研究旨在更好地了解气候变化如何影响海洋生态系统，特别是海洋微型浮游生物。例如，目前对长期和短期气候变化如何影响海洋微生物的丰度、产量、组合组成、多样性和进化知之甚少。在接下来的五年里，我将把我的研究活动集中在确定海洋微型浮游生物如何受到快速环境变化的影响，如厄尔尼诺南方涛动（ENSO）和现代海洋中的季风以及全新世。这项研究涉及对气候档案的分析，如来自敏感地记录这些快速气候变化的关键地点的层状沉积物（例如，加州湾、卡里亚科盆地、赤道大西洋和阿拉伯海）。此外，还将在几年的时间内在关键地点监测海洋微型浮游生物的现存量和沉积情况。应用各种最新开发的尖端技术和最适合超高分辨率分析的代理（例如，基于颗石形态学的温度和盐度代理）保证高质量的数据，并且以这种方式获得的知识对于评估预期的未来全球变暖对海洋生态系统的影响至关重要（例如，初级生产力的改变导致鱼类种群和生物多样性的变化）。

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 modeled 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 gaining a better understanding of how climate change affects the marine ecosystem, particularly the marine microplankton. For example, little is currently known about how long-term and short-term climate variability affect the abundance, production, assemblage composition, diversity and evolution of marine microorganisms. During the next five years I will focus my research activities on determining how marine microplankton have been affected by rapid environmental changes such as 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, Equatorial Atlantic and the Arabian Sea). In addition, the standing stock and sedimentation of marine microplankton will be monitored over a time period of several years at key locations. The application of various recently developed cutting edge techniques and proxies most suitable for ultra high resolution analysis (e.g., temperature and salinity proxies based on coccolith morphology) guarantees high quality data and the knowledge obtained in this way will be essential in assessing the impact of anticipated future global warming on the marine ecosystem (e.g., altered primary productivity resulting in changed fish stocks and biodiversity).