Research Director

Sherwood Lan Smith

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Chief Scientist
website

Outline

Based on the theoretical concept of optimality, expressed in terms of eco-physiological trade-offs, this project aims to: 1) develop a new, efficient model of the biodiversity of plankton communities and how it in turn determines the adaptive capacity of lower-trophic ecosystems as a function of environmental conditions, and 2) apply this new model to understand and predict the response of ecosystems to environmental change in the North Pacific Ocean. In the future, coupled with different models of the physical environment at various spatio-temporal scales, this new ecosystem model is expected to provide useful information for addressing many problems that confront human society as the result of changes in the marine environment and ecosystems.