北海道大学・化学物質循環学分野・地球環境・炭素循環・地球温暖化

The 21^st century is often called the "century of the environment." Although human beings have succeeded in civilization by using fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, the human activities are causing rapid changes in natural environment. Therefore, much attention attention has recently been paid in our surroundings in the past, present, and future.

For example, level of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere is increasing every year, leading to global warming certainly. The CO₂ emitted to the atmosphere does not remain in the air, but exchange among the atmosphere, ocean and land. The behavior often affects terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and those organisms, in turn, produce several feedbacks to the environment. Therefore, the causal relationship between the increase in CO₂ in the atmosphere and global warming is complicated, and makes future predictions uncertain.

In the group of Marine and Atmospheric Geochemistry, we are trying to determine the key factors and processes controlling the biogeochemical cycles, and to estimate their spatiotemporal variations using chemical, biological, and physical evidences.

We renew the system of the entrance examination from 2011 to accept the entrance of students from various backgrounds. We will judge the matriculation from results of following three examinations.