Our education and research focus on the ecology of marine organisms such as prokaryotic microorganisms, phytoplankton, zooplankton and "earth-feeding" deep-sea metazoans to understand how marine ecosystems function and how these ecosystems interact with global biogeochemical cycles. We study activities and community structures of marine organisms and interactions between such organisms and environments both in the field and in the laboratory.

<Academic Staff>
UYE Shin-ichi (Professor)
NAGANUMA Takeshi (Associate Professor)
KOIKE Kazuhiko (Associate Professor)

Biosphere consists of many subsystems that are intimately related to each other. The interlinkages of biological process and material flows sustain the ecosystem. The origin of such ecosystem can be traced back the fossil record of Precambrian deep sea hydrothermal vent. Studies of the evolutionary process and the interlinkages provide many clues to elucidate a complexity of the modern ecosystem. Marine ecosystem occupies largest part of the biosphere. The major marine area, specially deep sea, has been remain an unexplored field. To understand the complexity of whole marine ecosystem, many research activities (cruise expeditions, in situ experiments, and laboratory investigations etc.) are carried over in our program.

<Academic Staff>
MARUYAMA Tadashi (Visiting Professor)
YAMAMOTO Hiroyuki (Visiting Professor)
FUJIWRA Yoshihiro (Visiting Associate Professor)

The Seto Inland Sea is the largest semi-enclosed coastal sea in Japan; along its coastal area, ~30 million people live. Hence, it is a field of great interest where human's life, fisheries, industries, and tourism all coexist. Shallow sea areas such as the Seto Inland Sea have tidal-flats and seagrass-algal beds, where complicated ecosystems consisting of a number of various organisms are found. Thus, they are regarded as the most biologically productive for fisheries. The objectives of this course are to study relationships between organisms and environments and/or among organisms at shallow sea areas, ecological roles of native viruses suppressing harmful algal blooms caused by eutrophication, and to understand conception and technology for rational conservation and wise use of coastal ecosystems.

<Academic Staff>
HAMAGUCHI Masami (Visiting Professor)
NAGASAKI Keizo (Visiting Professor)
YOSHIDA Goro (Visiting Associate Professor)

Since plants are immobile, they have developed unique mechanisms to adapt to environmental stresses such as cold (physical factors), air pollutants (chemical factors) and pathogen (biological factors).
We have been interested in studying the mechanisms of plant defense systems and improving their resistance to these environmental stresses. Especially we have focused attention on the function of apoplastic space including cell wall as the front line of stress responses.
Research subjects:
(1) Accumulation of environmental toxic substances in cell wall
(2) The functions of apoplastic proteins as the determinant of plant growth
(3) The role of apoplastic molecules in plant responses to UV illumination
(4) Control of flowering by day length
(5) Non- destructive measurement of physical properties of plant fruits by laser Doppler method.

<Academic Staff>
SAKURAI Naoki (Professor)
NAKAGAWA Naoki (Assistant Professor)

Our research interest is focused on the interactions between plants and soil environments in order to improve plant production and to maintain the soil sustainability. Current researches are conducted on assessment and analysis of soil microbial biomass and microflora that plays an essential role for plant nutrient recycling and environmental conservation and analysis of interactions among plant-soil-microorganisms to control of soil-borne diseases and soil remediation. Most of these researches are carried out with the scope of developing practical technology to utilize useful organic waste materials. Our aims are to have a profound understanding of soil physical, chemical and biological phenomena in plant environment, that absolutely essential for survival of human race and to develop a compatible technology for improvement of plant production with environmental conservation by activating and utilizing plant-soil ecosystem.

<Academic Staff>
KOUNO Kenji (Professor)
NAGAOKA Toshinori (Associate Professor)

The rhizosphere is defined as the specific region of soil affected by plant roots. Plant root releases various compounds, such as enzymes, organic acids, sugars, and secondary metabolites, which are influenced nutrient dynamics. The compounds released into the rhizosphere trigger plant-microbe interactions, which have also impacts on nutrient dynamics. Microbial ecology in the rhizosphere is not well understood, because more than 99% microbes in the soil still remain not yet cultured in present. In order to understand a small biosphere "the rhizosphere," we are studying both functions of microbes and plants. The major subject of laboratory is the plant-microbe interactions involved in "phosphorus", which is one of the three major essential elements for plants and also faced to problems by environmental pollution and depletion of resources.

<Academic Staff>
WASAKI Jun (Associate Professor)