9:40 AM - 10:05 AM
[U08-03] Revision of the Roadmap in the Biogeosciences Section of JpGU
★Invited Papers
The board members of the Biogeosciences Section have discussed revision of the Roadmap on 26 December 2017 and 27 January 2018, with attendance of 15 out the 22 board members to either or both of these meetings. We received no specific comments from other Sections of JpGU or from any academic societies under JpGU. “Understanding the co-evolution between Life and Earth” was considered an ultimate goal of our science in the previous version, but our revision transferred this to a first checkpoint, which is followed by a second checkpoint of “Synthesis of ecosystems” to understand the dynamics of the Earth-Life system and a third checkpoint of “Creation of life” to understand the Earth and Life in the universe. Accordingly, other key words and phrases that complement this central trajectory have also been updated. Biogeosciences embrace such research fields as astrobiology, geomicrobiology, origin of life, biogeochemistry, paleoenvironments, and paleobiology. During the course of our discussion, it was argued that an equal representation of those areas had better be considered for a balanced development of our science. On the other hand, it was also pointed out that a mere bundling of “vertical structures” is meaningless and would not work for proposals of large scale projects such as those intended here. This latter argument would even more suitably apply to the revision of the Roadmap at the level of whole Earth and Planetary Sciences, because the current version appears to be a simple collection of Roadmaps from the five Sections. Thus, unequal representation of the research fields and/or “cross-segment” research plans may have to be seriously considered when revising the Roadmap above the Section level.