Paleo-environmental Research Section

Professor Ayako Abe-Ouchi Professor Yusuke Yokoyama

Understanding past environments is key to projecting future changes. Thus, we investigate climate and earth surface systems over the past period, during which time global climates have fluctuated dramatically with glacial- interglacial cycles and accompanying changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. Combined observational and modeling studies are a unique feature of CESD. Various geographic areas are targeted for collecting samples including South and South East Asia, Pacific coral reefs, and Antarctica. A state-of-the-art climate model (MIROC) is used for paleoclimate studies, whereas solid earth deformation modeling to understand glacio-hydro-isostatic adjustment (GIA) is employed to quantitatively deduce past ice volume changes. Studies provide information about the extent of the uniqueness of the current climate conditions and help understand the climate system from the past to future. Our group is also involved heavily with international collaborative programs, such as IPCC, PMIP, PAGES, IODP, IGCP and SCAR.