Ecological Research Group (Koizumi, Kageyama, Komiyama)

We aim to elucidate the interactions among the atmosphere, soil, and water systems and the ecophysiological activities of the plants and soil microorganisms that comprise an ecosystem. Further, we aim to elucidate the structure and function of the ecosystem. Our themes in study and experiment include the species structure of vegetation, biomass, characteristics of the environmental response of ecophysiological functions (photosynthesis, respiration, growth), species structure of soil microorganisms, biomass, physiological characteristics (degradation of organic matter, CO₂ release), CO₂ flux in the ecosystem unit, the dynamics of organic carbon and nitrogen inflow and outflow from soilspheres and hydrospheres, etc. In carrying out research and experiments, we aim to thoroughly understand the indicators that correspond to the parameters obtained by remote sensing observations, and to investigate methods to obtain data that can be directly connected to remote sensing analysis. At the same time, we will give similar consideration to the parameters for the weather and living organisms, which are deemed vital for modeling analysis.