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Soil Science Lab
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The lab goes into the field to study agricultural soils and material cycles.
AboutAbout the lab
Studying farmland soil from the field
The Soil Science Lab studies material cycles in agricultural ecosystems and soil fertility.
Centered on fieldwork, the lab also addresses problems related to global warming, such as greenhouse gas emissions from soil and soil carbon sequestration.
Teams are organized by study site, and measurement and analysis know-how is passed on from faculty and senior students to younger students.
In spring and autumn, the lab also conducts surveys examining soil profiles across Hokkaido.
Key terms
- Material cycles
- The way elements such as carbon and nitrogen move among soil, plants, the atmosphere, and water while changing form.
- Soil carbon sequestration
- The idea of storing carbon derived from plants and compost in the soil to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
- Eutrophication
- A condition in which nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus increase excessively in water, causing algae and other organisms to multiply massively.
NewsLab news
Paper by Prof. Toma and colleagues published in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
Paper by Prof. Toma and colleagues published in CATENA
Paper by Prof. Toma and colleagues published in Ecological Indicators
Team of doctoral students and others wins the Integrated Techniques Award at the CLIMIT Summit 2025 SMART-CDR Competition
Doctoral student receives the Young Researcher Oral Presentation Award at the 2024 Fukuoka Meeting of the Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
ResearchResearch themes
Starting from agricultural soils, the lab examines environmental change through the movement of materials, from the scale of a single field to that of a region. Centered on fieldwork, it studies material cycles in agricultural ecosystems, the evaluation of soil fertility, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil carbon sequestration.
*Illustrative imageNitrogen flowing from farmland into rivers
When nutrient elements that enter farmland through fertilizer and other sources are washed by rain into rivers and groundwater, they can cause eutrophication of coastal waters and contamination of drinking water. The lab aims to reduce the load from agriculture by clarifying the factors that control this outflow, based on land use in watersheds and the condition of riparian forests and wetlands.
*Illustrative imageEffects of compost on greenhouse gases
In farmland where organic matter is removed at harvest, not only nutrients but also soil carbon gradually decline. The lab quantitatively evaluates how applying compost affects the maintenance of soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, using the eddy covariance method and the chamber method.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Soil Science Lab consist of faculty members, visiting researchers, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and administrative assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorYo Toma
- Associate ProfessorOsamu Nakahara
- Assistant ProfessorHiyori Namie
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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: “Soil Pit ( )” USDAgov / Public domain (cropped)
- Nitrogen flowing from farmland into rivers: “Eutriphied lake and farm - Maack - 200908” Smaack / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Effects of compost on greenhouse gases: “Manure spreading about to commence - geograph.org.uk - 5748963” Gordon Hatton / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Crop Nutrition Lab): “Crops NR )” USDA NRCS / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Bioorganic Chemistry Lab): “Jasmonic acid molecule ball” Jynto (talk) / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Biochemistry Lab): “Jodprobe” Flo Sorg / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Microbial Physiology Lab): “Bifidobacterium longum en microscopie électronique” Julie6301 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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