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Terrestrial Ecology Lab
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An ecology lab that seeks to understand ecosystems through land plants and the movement of carbon.
AboutAbout the lab
Reading terrestrial ecosystems through carbon flow
The Terrestrial Ecology Lab studies the ecology of land plants and the movement of carbon (the carbon cycle) in terrestrial ecosystems and organisms.
Its ultimate aim is to accurately describe and understand how ecosystems work and how organisms live, and it uses the cycling of materials, centered on carbon, as the means to do so.
The lab often goes into the field to conduct surveys and observations, and it also carries out laboratory experiments in parallel as needed.
On the lab's website, it is also introduced under the name "Hirota Lab."
Key terms
- Carbon cycle
- The flow in which carbon, such as carbon dioxide, moves among the atmosphere, plants, soil, and other reservoirs.
- Succession
- The process by which vegetation and forest structure change over time.
- Old-growth forest
- A forest at the final stage of succession.
NewsLab news
A paper on the effects of wild boar rooting on ecosystems and its management has been accepted by Forest Ecology and Management
A paper on a new method for quantifying the responses of biological communities to climate change has been accepted by Global Ecology and Biogeography
A short report on the first record of the moth Tenobiyoto, which uses Miscanthus sinensis as its host plant, has been accepted by Konchu
A paper on the effects of gap size in old-growth forests on understory vegetation has been accepted by Journal of Forest Research
A paper on gaps and carbon fixation in old-growth forests has been accepted by the journal of the Japan Okuyama Society
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to clarify the interactions between land plants and the environment, and to understand the effects that rapid environmental change such as global warming has on ecosystems and organisms. To that end, it focuses on the cycles of major materials, including the carbon cycle, and their processes, and conducts surveys and observations in a wide variety of ecosystems around the world.
*Illustrative imageEffects of environmental change on plants and ecosystems
The lab investigates how rising temperatures from global warming affect the structure and function of alpine plants and the ecosystems that include them. It also studies how biotic environmental factors, such as being eaten by animals, affect alpine and grassland ecosystems.
*Illustrative imageCarbon cycling and forest structure in old-growth forests
Forest structure changes greatly through succession, and carbon cycling changes with it. The lab focuses on old-growth forests, the final stage of succession, and investigates the relationship between the forest structure specific to old-growth forests and the functioning of the carbon cycle.
*Illustrative imageRelationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function
The lab has investigated how the diversity of plant communities relates to ecosystem functions such as the amounts of photosynthesis and respiration. It has become clear that the way leaves are arranged in plant communities, which changes with diversity, is an important key to the relationship between the two.
MembersFaculty
The Terrestrial Ecology Lab consists of faculty members and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorMitsuru Hirota
- Assistant ProfessorShota Masumoto
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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: “Beech Forest (AU), Great Otway National Park, Beauchamp Falls” Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Effects of environmental change on plants and ecosystems: “Papaver pseudocanescens - polar poppy in the Altai Mountains 04” Alexandr frolov / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Carbon cycling and forest structure in old-growth forests: “Creek and old-growth forest-Larch Mountain” w:User:Nickpdx / Public domain (cropped)
- Relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function: “Leaf canopy at Father Hennepin State Park, Minnesota” Lorie Shaull / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Aquatic Ecology Lab): “Ocean phytoplankton bloom feed by the Amazon River” NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Microbial Ecology Lab): “Alpine Tundra Plants on Grey Mountain ( )” Chris Hunkeler from Carlsbad, California, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Photosynthetic Metabolism Regulation Lab): “Red Algae Haematococcus pluvialis 1000X” Rendodge / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Plant Molecular Physiology Lab): “ISS-56 Arabidopsis plants inside the Advanced Plant Habitat (1)” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
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