Activities

2025.11.7

Report on the symposium “Marine Environmental Impact Assessment under a Changing Climate”

At the Japan Society of Oceanography 2025 Fall Meeting in Hakodate, a symposium titled “Marine Environmental Impact Assessment under a Changing Climate” (hosted by the Society’s Marine Environmental Issues Research Group) was held on September 25 (Th.). WPI-AIMEC Unit Leader, Prof. Michio Kawamiya (Principal Researcher, JAMSTEC), is one of the conveners. Prof. Michio Kondoh (Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University), also a WPI-AIMEC Unit Leader, participated as a speaker. This report details the event.

The objective is to provide an overview of the current status of researches on global climate change and its impacts on coastal areas and fisheries, introduce the content and utilization of environmental and future projection data to enhance awareness, and thereby contribute to reliable future change projections across marine-related fields.

On the day of the event, 31 participants (including speakers) attended in person, with up to 40 additional attendees accessing the event online, though there was some overlap between in-person and online attendees. Prior to the event, there were concerns that, as a standalone symposium held after the main conference presentations, it might struggle to attract significant attention. Nevertheless, it ultimately garnered sufficient interest.

Vigorous discussions took place following each presentation. Furthermore, during the final general discussion, many requests were made regarding the future development of the projection dataset (DS2022) introduced by Dr. Hideyuki Nakano (Meteorological Research Institute). Many emphasized the desirability of increasing the resolution and sophistication of the projection dataset for coastal areas close to the shore, which are of great interest to many fisheries stakeholders and the general public. Such efforts are also expected to contribute to the reliable assessment of fisheries impacts, as pointed out in Prof. Shin-ichi Ito (University of Tokyo) presentation.

Furthermore, as pointed out in the presentations by Prof. Yuichi Hayami (Saga University) and Prof. Michio Kondoh (WPI-AIMEC, Tohoku University), various environmental variability factors exist in coastal areas beyond global environmental changes. During the general discussion, several questions were raised regarding details not covered in the presentations, reaffirming a shared recognition of the complexity of coastal environments. Projecting the future of these “various environmental variability factors” is even more complicated than projecting climate change. Approaches to address this point emerged as a future challenge.