1. Development of Sustainable Land Management
Agriculture supports the growing population reaching to eight billion, while it significantly impacts the natural environment. Opening natural land as an agricultural field destroys habitats and decreases biodiversity and has released more carbon dioxide than fossil fuel consumption; nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer applied to agricultural fields pollute water bodies and distort their global biogeochemical cycles. A deep understanding of soil is necessary to meet the food demands while conserving the natural environment. We study greenhouse gas emission from soil, desertification, soil erosion, water pollution, etc. and try to establish sustainable land management.
2. Soil Characteristics and Elemental Dynamics in Various Ecosystems
Soil forms, taking a long time under the effects of climate and landscape and interacting with vegetation and microbes. Soils formed in such a way, in turn, support plant growth, control the quantity and quality of water flowing out from it, and release gases including greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. In various ecosystems of tropical to subpolar and humid to semiarid regions, we study characteristics of soils and the dynamics of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
3. Relationships between People and Soil/Nature/Agriculture
To develop sustainable land management, we have to clarify how people relate to soil/nature/agriculture in addition to the understanding of elemental dynamics and the development of farming techniques. We are studying how people recognize and utilize natural resources including soil and what is the necessary conditions for the distribution of newly developed farming techniques, considering social and economic backgrounds.
Keyword: Environmental problem; Carbon dynamics; Nitrogen dynamics; Phosphorus dynamics; Organic matter accumulation; Desertification; Soil erosion; Forest ecosystem; Agricultural ecosystem; Soil formation; Clay minerals; Land use; Land management; Food production; Yield; Biogeochemistry; Stable isotope; 13C; 15N; Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, India, Nepal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi
For specific study topics, please refer to the webpages of the professors and publications.
