2/12/2013

Visiting JAMSTEC and Discussions at Hongo Campus

Hello, this is Jan-Rainer Riethdorf. I am currently a JSPS post doc in the Yokoyama lab.

On February 5th, I finally had the opportunity to visit the research facilities of JAMSTEC in Yokosuka and to discuss with Dr. Naohiko Ohkouchi and his group at the Institute of Biogeosciences. My current work here at AORI uses sedimentary nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N) to reconstruct changes in surface nitrate utilization and therefore the biological pump in the Bering Sea. Dr. Ohkouchi is a specialist in the determination of compound-specific δ15N and after showing me the respective sophisticated laboratory equipment we discussed and agreed on applying this procedure to my Bering Sea samples.

For the following day Prof. Yokoyama organized a meeting with Dr. Naomi Harada and Dr. Yusuke Okazaki at Hongo Campus. I had not been at Hongo before and was quite impressed about the architecture of some buildings. Dr. Harada and Dr. Okazaki of the Paleoceanography Research Team (Environmental Biogeochemical Cycle Research Program, JAMSTEC) are experts on the paleoceanography of the North Pacific and its marginal seas and I was lucky to show them the results of my own research. We had very fruitful discussions and as a conclusion of this meeting we agreed to start joint international discussion with my colleagues at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) and at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, Bremerhaven) in Germany.