Amur-Okhotsk Sea Ice Research Project Planned

The Research Institute for Humanity and Nature and the Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University will jointly launch the Amur-Okhotsk Project in April 2005. This is a collaborative research project involving Japan, China and Russia. Preliminary studies have been conducted since the first project meeting was held in November 2002.

This project aims to predict and prevent changes in marine ecosystems by understanding their relationships to human activities by considering material cycles between land, river and sea as one system. Research in the Amur River basin, which runs along the boundary between northeastern China and Siberia in Russia to the Sea of Okhotsk, plays a vital role in the project.

The Sea of Okhotsk in the north Pacific Ocean is rich in nutrient salts carried from the deep ocean to surface layers by vertical convection. The research project will study four issues: (1) the amount, and spread of iron and other land-based materials that flow into the sea from the Amur River and their relationship with biological productivity, (2) the state of changes on land in the river basin and the amount and kinds of additional materials flowing to the river, (3) changes in the political and economic conditions in the river basin and the resulting changes to the land, and (4) long-term changes in the region, seawater and material cycles.

It is in the Sea of Okhotsk that sea ice reaches the southernmost point in the northern hemisphere. The Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido, famous in Japan for its sea ice, has been nominated as a Natural World Heritage site in recognition of the value of its food chains resulting from phytoplankton growth after the sea ice melts each year.



Posted: 2005/03/01 11:54:58 AM
Japanese version