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Environmental Change Analysis Lab
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The lab reads the changing history of Earth's environment from the records preserved in sediments.
AboutAbout the lab
Connecting past and present to read environmental change
The Environmental Change Analysis Lab aims to reconstruct how Earth's environment has changed and to identify the causes.
It focuses on how humans and the environment have affected each other since the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago and the industrial revolution 200 years ago.
Using methods from paleoclimatology and geochemistry, the lab studies past environmental change as well as the present-day carbon and water cycles of the Earth, on both land and in the oceans.
By treating past and present changes as one continuous story, the lab seeks to find principles useful for predicting the future of the global environment.
Key terms
- Biomarker
- An organic molecule left in sediments that derives from a particular organism. It serves as a clue to past environments
- Microfossil
- A fossil so small that it is observed under a microscope. It is extracted from seafloor mud to study conditions in ancient oceans
- Stratigraphy
- The order in which strata are stacked. Lower layers are older, and past events are recorded in sequence
ResearchResearch themes
The lab reconstructs past environmental change using biomarkers and microfossils preserved in marine and terrestrial sediments. At the same time, it studies the present-day carbon and water cycles of the Earth, connecting past and present to explore how environmental change works.
*Illustrative imageClimate and history
The lab studies how past climate change affected human societies. By analyzing a sediment core taken from Beppu Bay and reconstructing water temperature at a resolution of about 8 years, it found that the three great famines of the Edo period all occurred during periods of low water temperature.
*Illustrative imageCombustion-derived organic matter and the carbon cycle
Charcoal and soot formed when fossil fuels and plants burn are widespread on the Earth's surface and are considered important components that store carbon. The lab focuses on combustion-derived organic matter in environmental waters, which has been little studied.
*Illustrative imageStratigraphy that recalls a past no one has seen
When a pipe is driven into the seafloor of the Sea of Japan and mud is extracted, black layers and other layers appear repeatedly. The black layers record periods when the deep seawater contained little oxygen. By carefully reading such stratigraphic sequences, the lab traces past environmental change.
*Illustrative imageThe ocean carbon cycle read from microfossils
Atmospheric CO2 concentration has fluctuated greatly on a cycle of about 100,000 years. By analyzing fossils of plankton contained in core samples of seafloor sediments, the lab estimates how much organic matter and carbonate were produced and dissolved in past oceans.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Environmental Change Analysis Lab include faculty, researchers, research support staff, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorMasanobu Yamamoto
- Associate ProfessorYohei Yamashita
- Associate ProfessorTomohisa Irino
- Assistant ProfessorShinya Iwasaki
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Write a lab reviewAnonymous · Your draft is saved if you stopRelatedLabs similar to Environmental Change Analysis Lab
Evolutionary Paleontology LabFaculty of Science, Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesPaleobotany, paleontology
Arctic Research Unit LabFaculty of Science, Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesPolar oceanography (physical oceanography and sea ice)
Geochemistry LabFaculty of Science, Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesCosmochemistry (isotope geochemistry)
Ocean and Sea Ice Dynamics LabFaculty of Science, Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesPhysical oceanographyThe information on this page is compiled by the LabLog team from the lab's public information and interviews. For corrections or removal requests, please contact LabLog, not the lab.
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: “View of geological strata in Capadocia” Wokege / CC0 (cropped)
- Climate and history: “Beppu Bay02n4272” 663highland / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Combustion-derived organic matter and the carbon cycle: “Hughes Fire burning on 22 January 2025 and firefighters with United States Forest Service (USFS) - 20” Region 5 Photography / Public domain (cropped)
- Stratigraphy that recalls a past no one has seen: “Kilve Beach Rock Formation - geograph.org.uk - 229528” Rob Farrow / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- The ocean carbon cycle read from microfossils: “Ammonia beccarii 1 Foraminifera” Holger Krisp / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Evolutionary Paleontology Lab): “Bayanzag 09” Bernard Gagnon / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Arctic Research Unit Lab): “Calving Front of Kangerdlugssup Glacier” NASA/Michael Studinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Geochemistry Lab): “Allende meteorite, carbonaceous chondrite ( )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Ocean and Sea Ice Dynamics Lab): “Mackenzie Bay, Antarctica ( )” NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA / Public domain (cropped)
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