Concept of Earth's climate sysytem（Earth's Climate [William Ruddiam]）

　The Earth's climate system is a complex system which consists of several subsystems. The subsystems interact with each other on different time scales. In order to improve the prediction accuracy of climate change, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of this climate system and to improve the the atmospheric (ocean) general circulation model.

　However, it is not easy to fully understand the climate system. This is because the response time between subsystems that make up the climate system includes long time scales that are beyond the instrumental record. In order to better understand the whole of the Earth's climate system, it is necessary to reconstruct individual subsystem fluctuations in a past at various time scales to reveal how they are (or not) related.

　Our laboratory reconstructs past change in climate in various time scales and climate conditions of a certain period from the paleoclimate archives collected from different parts of the world. And we analyze the paleoclimate data to unravel the mechanism of the climate system.

How to reconstrust paleoclimate
　We measure paleoclimate proxies from the paleoclimate archive to reconstruct paleoclimates (temperature, precipitation, salinity, ocean circulation, atmospheric CO2, vegetation, biological production, biota, etc.). There are various proxies, but our laboratory mainly applies organic geochemical technique (biomarker). Various biomarkers with origin specific are preserved in environmental samples. By analyzing their molecular composition and isotope ratios, we can extract various environmental information. In addition to that, we have research networks with laboratories of other universities and research institutes, so that we can choose methods according to the purpose.

　　　 　　　Source, transport and fate of organic molecule tracers

Laboratory Equipment

・GC　Agilent HP6890, Agilent 7890

・GC/MS　Agilent 5975B

・GC(EA)/C/IRMS DELTA Plus

・GC(EA)/TC/IRMS DELTA Plus XL

・Dionex ASE 200

・Buchi SpeedExtractor E-916

・Buchi Syncore Polyvap