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Functional Ecology Lab
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A lab that explores how the diversity of living things arises and is maintained.
AboutAbout the lab
How diversity arises and how it is maintained.
The Functional Ecology Lab studies how the diversity of living things arises and is maintained.
There are countless species on Earth, and within each species individuals also differ from one another.
The lab examines how this diversity has changed over the long history of evolution and, more recently, through climate change and human activity.
Working in forest, river, snow and ice, and island ecosystems and with experimental populations, the lab studies a wide range of organisms, including insects, fish, plants, and microorganisms.
Key terms
- Community ecology
- The field that studies how groups of multiple species living in the same place (communities) are formed and how they change
- Evolutionary ecology
- The field that studies the connection between the evolution of organisms and how ecological processes work
- Phenotypic plasticity
- The property by which organisms with the same genes differ in appearance or traits depending on the environment in which they grow
NewsLab news
Discovery that the behavior of Drosophila is determined by the influence of other species
A student won the Best Poster Award at the Ecological Society of Japan meeting
Study clarifies how urban nighttime light affects habitat segregation between closely related sea slaters
A student won the Best Poster Award at the Duckweed Research Meeting
A student won the Best Poster Award at the Japan Ethological Society meeting
ResearchResearch themes
Centered on community ecology and evolutionary ecology, the lab pursues research regardless of study system or organism. It studies forest, river, soil, snow and ice, and island ecosystems as well as experimental populations, and works with a wide range of organisms, from insects, bats, and fish to plants and microorganisms.
*Illustrative imageBiological communities in forest canopies
The forest canopy is the most biodiverse place on Earth. Drawing on information technologies such as remote sensing, canopy cranes, and an international network of canopy cranes, the lab compares detailed observations on a global scale and is building models that explain this diversity.
*Illustrative imageHost-plant preferences and evolution in insects
Herbivorous insects are selective about which plants they eat: some can use many plant species, while others can use only a very few. Working mainly with Lepidoptera, the lab combines feeding experiments, gene expression analysis, and metabolite analysis to investigate the mechanisms behind this selectivity.
*Illustrative imageHow diversity within a species arises
Diversity within a species arises not only from genetic differences but also from environmentally induced variation (phenotypic plasticity) and developmental noise. Using flowers and Drosophila, the lab studies how diversity in color, behavior, and form arises and how it affects evolution and ecology.
*Illustrative imageEvolutionary failure and limits
Evolution is not omnipotent. It is subject to various constraints, and biological populations are thought to sometimes fail to evolve. Focusing on the depletion of genetic diversity, migration load, and developmental constraints, the lab investigates how range limits and limits on the evolution of form come about.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Functional Ecology Lab consist of faculty, researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2024
- ProfessorMasashi Murakami
- ProfessorYuma Takahashi
- Assistant ProfessorDaiki Sato
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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: “Mountain Views, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest ( )” U.S. Forest Service- Pacific Northwest Region / Public domain (cropped)
- Biological communities in forest canopies: “CSIRO ScienceImage 3829 Tropical rainforest canopy near Cairns QLD” Willem van Aken, CSIRO / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Host-plant preferences and evolution in insects: “Caterpillar of box tree moth feeding on box tree leaf, Germany 2019 ( DSC2013-1)” Franz van Duns / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How diversity within a species arises: “Drosophila melanogaster 53362116” Alexis / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Evolutionary failure and limits: “Dinosaur Egg Museum, Xixia Dinosaur Park- Psittacosaurus Skeleton 01” Gary Todd / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (多様性進化研究室
（朝川研究室） ): “Polished slice of petrified wood” Michael Gäbler / CC BY 3.0 (cropped) - Related lab (筋発生生物学研究室
（佐藤研究室） ): “Muscle Tissue Capilary in Skeletal Muscle ( )” Berkshire Community College Bioscience Image Library / CC0 (cropped) - Related lab (形態形成学研究室
（田尻研究室） ): “Spiral borer (Jewel beetle) ( ) (cropped)” arian.suresh from Chennai, India / CC BY 2.0 (cropped) - Related lab (遺伝子機能形態学
（小笠原研究室） ): “Siphon exhalant d'ascidie (Ciona intestinalis) (Ifremer )” Olivier Dugornay / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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