The response of marine microplankton to climate changes

在理解当前全球变化方面最具挑战性的任务之一是理清和量化所涉及的组成部分和进程。虽然通过主要将地球视为一个物理或化学系统而成功地模拟了几个过程，但对生物圈中全球变化的定量描述，例如在海洋生态系统中，却远远落后。然而，任何对未来气候变化的评估都需要了解各种自然变异性。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，关于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，目前知之甚少。在接下来的五年里，我将把我的研究重点放在确定海洋微型浮游生物如何受到现代海洋和全新世期间厄尔尼诺南方涛动(ENSO)和季风等快速环境变化的影响。这项研究涉及对气候档案的分析，如敏感地记录这些快速气候变化的关键地区(如加利福尼亚州海湾、加勒比盆地、赤道大西洋和阿拉伯海)的层状沉积物。此外，将在几年内对关键地点的海洋微型浮游生物的现存量和沉降量进行监测。最适合于超高分辨率分析的各种最新开发的尖端技术和替代技术的应用(例如基于球藻形态的温度和盐度替代技术)保证了高质量的数据，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).