The Grand Challenges of WPI-AIMEC: Executive Summary

Toshio Suga, Fumio Inagaki, Kentaro Ando, Michio Kondoh, S. Lan Smith, Keith Rodgers, Toyonobu Fujii, Michio Kawamiya, Hanani Adiwira, Maki N. Aita, Vani Novita Alviani, Cheryl Lewis Ames, Kamrum Naher Azad, Ettore Barbieri, Batdulam Battulga, Jonathan Derot, Diego Deville, Tetsuichi Fujiki, Jimena García-Rodríguez, Tomoko Hamabata, Masumi Hasegawa-Takano, Andrew Hirzel, Tatsuhiko Hoshino, Benjamin P. Horton, Shigeki Hosoda, Minoru Ikeda, Yasufumi Iryu, Yoichi Ishikawa, Kota Ishikawa, Sabine Kasten, Jamie M. Kass, Satoshi Katayama, Shinya Kouketsu, Gaku Kumano, Zhen Lin, Jutarak Luang‑on, Hiroshi Murakami, Yuriko Nagano, Takashi Nakagawara, Tomoe Nasuno, Goh Nishitani, Riko Oki, Takeshi Obayashi, Yuichi Okayama, Yusaku Ohta, Shuhei Ono, Yutaka Osada, Bo Qiu, Namal Rathnayake, Kelvin Richards, Niklas Schneider, Takashi Sakamaki, Yusuke Sasaki, Kanako Sato, Masahito Shigemitsu, Eko Siswanto, Kugako Sugimoto, Shusaku Sugimoto, Yoshihisa Suyama, Kaoru Tachiiri, Hiromi Takahata, Hideko Takayanagi, Akifumi S. Tanabe, Hiroaki Tatebe, Fumiaki Tomita, Tsunaki Iida, Gerlien Verhaegen, Clara R. Vives, Lael Wakamatsu, Shingo Watanabe, Shuya Wang, Angelicque White, Nadine Wood, Baolan Wu, Shang-Ping Xie, Sayaka Yasunaka, Jiwei Yang, Akinori Yabuki, Yosuke Yamada, Alan Yee, Taichi Yokokawa, Nan Yuan, William F. McDonough, Kimio Hanawa

The ocean has a heat capacity 1,000 times greater than that of the atmosphere and stores 50 times more carbon comparatively, thus, constituting a major sink of anthropogenically released greenhouse gases. Warming effects of human activities on the climate system are now undeniably shown to impact marine life and ecosystems, both directly via warming of the ocean and/or indirectly altering ocean circulation across spatiotemporal scales. Beyond the effect of warming on individual organisms, a changing climate signal has been argued from modeling studies to cause a ripple effect known as trophic level amplification, resulting in changes in the balance of biomass in different size classes. Larger fractional changes in biomass are expected of predator organisms at higher trophic levels, such as fish, due to shifts in the representative phytoplankton at the base of the food web. With a shift towards smaller phytoplankton, trophic amplification scenarios are expected to disrupt fisheries and carbon storage algorithms and negatively affect ecosystem services necessary for a sustainable society. Despite continued advances in monitoring and modeling of ecosystems projecting changes related to trophic coupling, suitable habitat and biogeochemical element cycling remains difficult due to inadequate information on marine ecosystems across spatiotemporal scales. WPI-Advanced Institute for Marine Ecosystem Change (WPI-AIMEC) operates based on five institutional Grand Challenges (GCs). These GCs aim to promote fusion science by integrating observational, analytical, and modeling tools to complement theoretical approaches and advance our understanding of the processes driving marine ecosystem change. By combining the research skills and knowledge of the host institutes Tohoku University and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) in partnership with University ofHawai'i, we seek transformative solutions to the grandest challenges of addressing marine ecosystem change through diverse perspectives encompassing marine physics, biology, ecology, biogeochemistry, and data science. Overall, the AIMEC Grand Challenges offer unprecedented opportunities for cross­disciplinary fusion science and scientific breakthroughs with the attainable goal of "Planetary Stewardship”—the responsible management and care of the natural systems to ensure a sustainable and healthy planet for future generations.