The Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund
Introduction to Grant Projects
Science Course, Department of Earth Sciences, School of Education, Waseda University Assistant Professor Kazuyoshi MORIYA
Establishment of an index for seawater temperature based on archaeal membrane lipid composition; elucidating a history of warming in the Inland Sea
Research grant
- Project Description
Inferring from seawater temperature readings taken over the last three decades, the average annual surface water temperature at Beppu Bay is estimated to be rising at a rate of 4.1°C per century. This rate is much higher than a 1.3°C rise estimated for the open sea off Shikoku. In this research, we seek to determine if this rapid rise on Beppu Bay is attributable to global warming or if it is an aspect of the natural cycling of the Earth system. By this, we reveal a history of seawater temperature fluctuations in accompaniment with global warming for the Inland Sea as well, for which the record of instrumental measurements is insufficient and a suitable paleotemperature proxy does not exist. We anticipate that this will contribute to efforts to reveal relationships among fish catches, the environment of the Inland Sea, and broad-ranging weather phenomena.
- Fields
- Climate changeMarine resources/food
- Grant year
- FY2008 Research Grants
- Grant term
- 3 years
April 2009 - March 2012
- Grant amount
- 14,940,000 yen
- Activity region
- Inland Sea (Beppu Bay, Oita Prefecture)
Overview of the Organization
- Representative
- Assistant Professor Kazuyoshi Moriya
- Profile
- Specialist fields
Paleoceanography; paleoenvironment; paleoecology
Affiliated academic societies
Paleontological Society of Japan; the Geological Society of Japan; Sedimentological Society of Japan; Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan; Japan Geoscience Union; American Geophysical Union; Geological Society of America
Background
From 1 April 2002 to March 2003 was a Contract researcher at Yokosuka City Museum. From April 2003 to March 2006 worked at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In April 2006 to September 2006 was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Southampton. In October 2006 to March 2008 took a position as Postdoctoral Fellow, the Department of Earth Science, Kanazawa University. From April 2008 to March 2009 was appointed Research Fellow at Kanagawa University. From June 2008 to March 2009 was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Ehime University, and from April 2009 to present has been working as an Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, School of Education, Waseda University. Holds a Ph.D. (science). - WEB site
- http://www.waseda.jp/top/index-j.html
- Collaborating researchers
- Tadao KUNIHIRO, Researcher, Center for Marine Environmental Studies (CMES), Ehime University; Masanobu YAMAMOTO, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University
- Research record
-
- (1) Friedrich, O., Erbacher, J., Moriya, K., Wilson, P.A. and Kuhnert, H., 2008. Evidence for warm saline intermediate waters in the Cretaceous tropical Atlantic Ocean. Nature Geoscience, 1, p. 453-457.
- (2) Moriya, K., Wilson, P.A., Friedrich, O., Erbacher, J., and Kawahata, H., 2007. Testing for ice-sheets during the mid-Cretaceous greenhouse using glassy foraminiferal calcite from the mid-Cenomanian tropics on DemeraraRise. Geology, 35, p. 615-618.