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Makoto's Plant & Soil Lab
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A lab that investigates how winter warming and wildfires affect the connections between soil organisms and trees.
AboutAbout the lab
How climate change affects plants in cold regions
Makoto's Plant & Soil Lab, led by Associate Professor Makoto Kobayashi, studies how climate change affects plants in cold regions.
Focusing on aboveground and belowground plant traits and on material cycling in the soil, the lab clarifies the mechanisms behind these effects.
In addition to field surveys and laboratory analysis, the lab carries out large-scale field manipulation experiments that are possible only in the Hokkaido University Forests.
The lab is located in Nayoro City, and students live in Nayoro while conducting research at study sites in the Teshio, Nakagawa, and Uryu Experimental Forests.
Key terms
- Material cycling
- The movement of substances such as nitrogen and carbon among plants, soil organisms, soil, and the atmosphere
- Soil fauna
- Animals such as earthworms that live in the soil or in the leaf litter layer
- Field manipulation experiment
- An experiment in which conditions such as snow cover or temperature are deliberately altered in the field to see how organisms and ecosystems respond
ResearchResearch themes
Working in boreal forests and in mountain and Arctic tundra, the lab studies the mechanisms by which climate change affects plants. It focuses on changes such as winter climate change, wildfires, and slope failures, and on the connections between plants and soil organisms.
*Illustrative imageWinter climate change and plants in cold regions
The lab investigates, through field manipulation experiments and monitoring, how winter climate change, such as shorter snow-cover periods, affects plants and ecosystem functions in cold regions. In snowy boreal forests, it has found that seedlings growing under evergreen conifers or on fallen logs seem especially likely to be negatively affected.
*Illustrative imageConnections between plants and soil fauna
The lab studies how soil fauna such as earthworms decompose leaf litter and convert nitrogen into forms that plants can use more easily, supporting plant growth. In heavy-snow regions, it has found that earthworms overwintering under deep snow are important suppliers of nitrogen.
*Illustrative imageWildfires in boreal forests
The lab has shown that charcoal produced during wildfires plays a major role in tree regeneration and soil nutrient cycling. It is now examining differences in flammability among tree species, aiming to map forests that are prone to wildfires and where fire spreads easily.
*Illustrative imageForest recovery after slope failures
As a collaborative project, the lab conducts experiments on steep slopes in the Hokkaido University Forests, using heavy machinery to simulate slope failures. It aims to identify the factors that hinder the recovery of vegetation and ecosystem functions, and to develop techniques that speed up recovery using nitrogen-fixing plants.
MembersFaculty
The members of Makoto's Plant & Soil Lab consist of faculty, master's students, research students, interns, academic researchers, and technical support staff.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorMakoto Kobayashi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Hokkaido University Research Forest - panoramio” kazppi77 / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Winter climate change and plants in cold regions: “Forest Very Early Spring ( )” Michał Szu / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Connections between plants and soil fauna: “Lumbricus terrestris ( )” Donald Hobern from Copenhagen, Denmark / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Wildfires in boreal forests: “King County Creek Fire 2005” Murphy, Karen / Public domain (cropped)
- Forest recovery after slope failures: “2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake, Atsuma, slope failure” 北海道開発局 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Ecosystem Function Lab (Urakawa)): “Creek stream - panoramio” Babiesan / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Biodiversity Lab (Kasada)): “Coccinella septempunctata, larva eating aphids” Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Regional Resource Management Lab (Yoshida)): “Mischwald” Saharadesertfox / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Biodiversity Lab (Uetake)): “Taylor Glacier, cryoconite hole” Peter Rejcek, NSF / Public domain (cropped)
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