I am a PhD student at the Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University. My research focuses on the impact of hydrothermal vent waters on mesozooplankton in the Kueishan Island region of northeast Taiwan. This shallow hydrothermal vent system emits hot, sulfidic, and highly acidic fluids, creating a low pH environment, which serves as a natural laboratory for studying potential future oceanic changes.

The primary aim of my thesis is to investigate the spatiotemporal variations in mesozooplankton mortality and examine the community structure, with particular emphasis on the dominant copepod species, across three different monsoonal periods around Kueishan Island. My research also seeks to link the physiology of field-collected mesozooplankton, particularly copepods, to various oceanographic variables present in the hydrothermal vent environment, which are analogous to factors associated with climate change. I utilize specific biomarkers to measure oxidative stress in copepods under different environmental conditions and assess DNA integrity to evaluate genomic resilience.

In my poster presented at ICOC 2024, I shared my preliminary findings on the effects of acidified and toxic sulfide waters from these shallow hydrothermal vents on mesozooplankton communities. The study is the first to report on zooplankton mortality due to hydrothermal vent waters. It revealed that mesozooplankton mortality decreases significantly with increasing distance from the vents and is negatively correlated with sea surface temperature and pH. These findings suggest that zooplankton may face similar challenges in the more acidified waters expected in the future ocean.
Attending ICOC 2024 in Japan provided an excellent opportunity to engage with scientists from around the world. I am deeply honored to have received one of the student poster presentation awards from WAC, and I am grateful for the positive feedback on my research. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the organizers and everyone involved in making the conference a success.