Overview: Special Issue on ^|^ldquo;Paleoenvironmental Changes in the Antarctic Cryosphere: Global Climate Change Investigated in the Southern Ocean^|^rdquo;

Abstract

change, it is im-portant to understand the mechanisms and pro-cesses of sub-systems in the Antarctic cryosphere such as changes of biological productivity, sea-sur-face temperature, surface water frontal system, sea ice distribution, and Antarctic ice sheet during the glacial-interglacial climate cycle. Because the Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are remote from Japan, not many Japanese re-searchers consider those areas as a research field. However, geological and geomorphological re-search projects on the Antarctic continent have been conducted under the program of the Japa-nese Antarctic Research Expedition（ JARE） in re-cent years. The marine geological survey cruises also used the R/V Hakuho-maru in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. Therefore, the contribution of Japan to Antarctic cryosphere research has been increasing. In addition, the In-tegrated Ocean Drilling Program（ IODP） Expedi-tion 318 explored the Wilkes Land margin, East Antarctica in 2009. Seven researchers from Japan were aboard the drilling vessel JOIDES Resolu-tion, and participated in joint international re-search. Thus, research on paleoenvironmental changes in the Antarctic cryosphere has pro-gressed through various approaches in recent years.