March 2019

This Volume 28 of the JAMSTEC Report of Research and Development (JAMSTEC-R) is the final publication of its series which started in 2005.

When JAMSTEC turned into an independent administrative corporation in 2004, we had missions to promote research and development, and to more widely contribute to advancement of academic research. As one of changes to pursue the missions, we launched a new form of its in-house academic journal “JAMSTEC-R”, merging the technical report “Report of Japan Marine Science and Technology Center” with the scientific publication “JAMSTEC Journal of Deep Sea Research”, aiming to keep pace with fast-advancing digitization. Although, we had achieved the aim to an extent, I recognize that we are required to make further evolution, including enhancement of our international recognition and introduction of a new publication style which enables release of still and moving images, as scientific results, captured in the course of observation as well as research and development.

Taking advantage of the experience obtained through the issuance of JAMSTEC-R, we would like to progress to the next stage.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone who has supported JAMSTEC-R through submitting papers and data, reviewing, editing and technical assistance. Special thanks are also extended to the successive chief editors, Drs. Mizuho Ishida, Hiroshi Kitazato, and Daisuke Suetsugu.

Asahiko Taira

President

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)

The JAMSTEC Model Intercomparison Project (JMIP) provides a first opportunity to systematically compare multiple global models developed and/or used in JAMSTEC with the aim of moving toward better weather and climate predictions. Here, we evaluate climate simulations obtained from atmospheric models (AFES and MIROC5), atmospheric model with slab ocean (NICAM.12), and fully coupled model (SINTEX-F1 and SINTEX-F2). In these simulations, the sea surface temperature is fixed (for AFES and MIROC5) or nudged (NICAM.12, SINTEX-F1, and SINTEX-F2) to the observed historical one. We focus on the climatology and variability of precipitation and its associated phenomena, including the basic state, the energy budget of the atmosphere, extratropical cyclones, teleconnection, and the Asian monsoon. We further discuss the possible causes of similarities and differences among the five JMIP models. Though some or most of the dynamical and physical packages in the JMIP models have been developed independently, common model biases are found among them. The AFES and MIROC5, and the SINTEX-F1 and SINTEX-F2, show strong similarities. In many respects, NICAM.12 shows unique characteristics, such as the distributions of precipitation, shortwave radiation, and explosive extratropical cyclones and the onset of the Asian summer monsoon. To some extent, the similarities and differences among the JMIP models overlap with those among the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase-5 (CMIP5) models, suggesting that JMIP can be used as a simple and in-depth version of CMIP to investigate the mechanisms of model bias. We suggest that this JMIP framework could be expanded to an intercomparison of weekly-to-seasonal scale weather forecasting; here, more fruitful discussion is expected through intensive collaboration among modeling and observation groups.

Top predators play an important role in maintaining biomass and biodiversity of most ecosystems. However, functional roles of the top predators in deep sea are still poorly understood. Large, predatory sharks are considered as the top predators in the deep sea, some of which are known to have a long-life span and a long-term maturation period. Most studies of the sharks have been conducted using lethal methods such as deep-sea trawls without attention to their vulnerability. It is urgent to develop non-lethal approaches for the shark studies. An autonomous in situ biopsy equipment is one solution, which collect a small amount of soft tissues non-lethally from the target fish. For developing the equipment, we conducted static penetration tests using three types of biopsy needles, i.e., conical, bevel, and trigonal pyramid shapes with the tip angles of 20, 30 and 40 degrees. Three species of deep-sea sharks, the roughskin dogfish Centroscymnus owstonii, the kitefin shark Dalatias licha, and the rough longnose dogfish Deania hystricosa, were applied for the penetration tests. The lowest penetration forces were 22.1N on the skin of D. hystricosa using the trigonal pyramid needle with the tip angle of 30 degrees, 65.3N on that of C. owstonii, and 95.3N on that of D. licha both using the trigonal pyramid needle with the tip angle of 20 degrees. The highest forces were recorded on the D. licha skins among the three sharks using any types of needles, which were 3.6 to 6.0 times larger than that of D. hystricosa and 55.3 times larger than that of the chub mackerel Scomber japonicus. We concluded that the trigonal pyramid with the tip angle of 20 or 30 degreesis the most suitable shape for our biopsy needle and that the shooting force has to be larger than 95.3N for collecting tissues from hard-skin species such as D. Licha.

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) had established “Basic Policies on the Handling of Data and Samples” in 2007 and subsequently expanded opportunities of utilization on data and samples obtained by JAMSTEC activities. For biological samples, while the metadata of the samples are integrated into a database, the samples are brought to various institutions and laboratories by the science party members who collect the samples. As such, JAMSTEC biological samples are operated under a co-management system by Data Management Office of JAMSTEC and science party members of various institutions. This system may sound unusual, but we regard it is a probable system to keep track of the locations of dispersed biological samples belonging to an institution and to operate the samples by the institution. Also, we open the metadata of the samples through a database and accept requests for secondary uses of the samples. JAMSTEC biological samples include not only the samples for long-term storage like those of museums and bioresource centers, but also the samples which is going to be used up in short-terms by scientists. Therefore, JAMSTEC opens wider range of samples to the public than other institutions do. This management system was established intend to maximize contributions of the biological samples to sciences and societies.

This fine resolution basin database provides basin model over 10ha sub-basins of the Sanriku coastal area located in the north west Pacific side of Japan. The data contain watershed boundary and flow path data about the target area created by use of a 10m digital elevation model (DEM). Using this data, the coverage area was increased over 721.66km² compared to the low resolution public data set provided by the government. It increased the coastline coverage from 17% to 84% compared with the low resolution data set in 1km grid. For use in the coastal area or river discharge model, this data also contains the overall drainage basin boundary at the river mouth. The area of this survey was highly damaged by the tsunami on The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and post-disaster anthropogenic impact. Thus, this database will be of interest in the context of changes in land use and river discharge to assess both post-disaster anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystems.

Complete dataset is available via site:http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/catalog/data_catalog/metadataDisp/JAMSTEC-R_28DP01?lang=en&view=simple

March 2019

This Volume 28 of “JAMSTEC Report of Research and Development (JAMSTEC-R)” is the final issue published by JAMSTEC, as the third Mid-Term Plan of JAMSTEC will be completed in March, 2019.

JAMSTEC-R was first published in 2005, integrating “Report of Japan Marine Science and Technology Center” launched in 1977 and “JAMSTEC Journal of Deep Sea Research” launched in 1985 (see page 63-65). From then on, JAMSTEC-R has been published biannually, playing an important role as an in-house academic journal of JAMSTEC that publicizes research achievements on marine earth science and technology made by researchers and engineers of and outside JAMSTEC who employed investigation devices, facilities, data and samples owned by JAMSTEC. Electronic papers have also been made available to the public through J-STAGE.

It is my great regret that the publication of the JAMSTEC's annals, which has been continued over four decades, will end with the cessation of JAMSTEC-R, but I expect that an achievement of research and development of JAMSTEC will be published via the JAMSTEC website and various academic journals internationally.All the papers published in JAMSTEC-R (see page 66-81) will remain available through “JAMSTEC Document Catalog” and “J-STAGE”.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all successive authors, reviewers, members of the editorial committee, the editorial office staff, and readers for their dedication to JAMSTEC-R.

Daisuke Suetsugu

Chief Editor

JAMSTEC-R Editorial Committee

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)