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Evolutionary Community Ecology Lab (Utsumi Lab)
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A lab that explores the connections and evolution of living things through fieldwork and genomics.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring the appeal and significance of diversity.
The Utsumi Lab studies how connections among living things come about and how they change.
From the standpoint of evolutionary community ecology, which combines community ecology and evolutionary biology, the lab mainly uses plants and insects as study subjects.
Combining fieldwork and experiments with genome analysis, the lab works in the familiar natural environments of Hokkaido.
The research extends to points of contact with human society, such as evolution in cities, ecosystem restoration, and the relationship between forests and farmland.
Key terms
- Interspecies interactions
- The ways living things affect one another, such as eating and being eaten, or living in symbiosis
- Eco-evolutionary feedback
- A process in which ecological and evolutionary change occur on the same timescale and influence each other through interspecies interactions
- Genetic diversity
- Slight differences in genes and traits among individuals within the same species
NewsLab news
Paper on the effects of genetic variation in leaf beetles and their host plants on community assembly accepted by Oikos
Review on climate change and ecological and evolutionary dynamics accepted by Current Opinion in Insect Science
International collaborative study on plant species diversity and tritrophic interactions published in Science Advances
Follow-up study on evolution in cities published in Oecologia
Two students won Poster Presentation Excellence Awards at the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Japan
ResearchResearch themes
The lab works on evolutionary community ecology, which integrates community ecology and evolutionary biology. Centered on field science and incorporating genomics, it aims to uncover the mechanisms behind biodiversity.
*Illustrative imageEco-Evolutionary Feedback
In the wild, evolution occurs as fast as population sizes change. The lab seeks to clarify how evolution and ecology influence each other through interspecies interactions, in the familiar natural environments of Hokkaido.
*Illustrative imageRipple Effects of Genetic Diversity
The lab investigates how genetic differences within a species ripple out to surrounding organisms. Genome analysis of alder has shown that genetic diversity within a forest has a major effect on the insects living in the trees.
*Illustrative imageConnections with Human Society
The lab examines how cities, ecosystems created by people, affect the evolution of organisms, and how ecosystem restoration relates to eco-evolutionary feedback. In the research forest, it has begun large-scale field manipulation experiments.
*Illustrative imageForest Landscapes and Farmland Productivity
In Horokanai Town, which has the largest buckwheat planting area in Japan and also has extensive forests, the lab studies, with the cooperation of farmers, how forest landscapes and farmland productivity are related.
MembersFaculty
The Utsumi Lab's members consist of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduate students, and technical assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorShunsuke Utsumi
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “Fresh green ( )” coniferconifer from japan / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Eco-Evolutionary Feedback: “Willow Leaf Beetle (Plagiodera versicolora) - Mississauga, Ontario 01” Ryan Hodnett / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Ripple Effects of Genetic Diversity: “Alnus japonica 01” Σ64 / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Connections with Human Society: “Bela detelina” Ranko / Public domain (cropped)
- Forest Landscapes and Farmland Productivity: “Fagopyrum esculentum field jp” Koba-chan / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Related lab (Hayakawa Lab): “013 Alpha male chimpanzee at Kibale forest National Park Photo by Giles Laurent” Giles Laurent / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Wakeman Lab): “Dinoflagellate Luminescense” catalano82 / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Naramoto Lab): “Arabidopsis thaliana kz07” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kuroiwa-Chikami-Yang Lab): “Chicken embryo” Mjeltsch / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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