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Plant-Soil System Lab
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A lab that studies the connections among forest plants, soil, and soil organisms.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring the interactions among plants, soil, and soil organisms.
The Plant-Soil System Lab studies how plants, soil, and soil organisms influence one another in planted forests.
It asks questions such as whether soil properties change plant traits, and whether plant traits change soil properties.
Another aim of this research is to draw out what people should be careful about, and what they can devise, so that forests can be used sustainably.
Study sites include inland forests as well as coastal forests, with tsunamis in mind.
Key terms
- Fine roots
- The thin roots of a tree. Like fallen leaves, they return to the soil when they die.
- Saprotrophs
- Microbes that decompose material such as sloughed fragments of roots.
- Gravel layer
- A soil layer containing many stones and pebbles.
NewsLab news
An undergraduate student won a Student Poster Award at the 137th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Forest Society
A co-authored paper won the Journal of Forest Research Paper Award of the Japanese Forest Society
Press release on the relationship between soil animals and roots in hinoki cypress forests
Press release on research reading changes in air pollution from sulfur in the tree rings of sacred trees
Press release on the roots and microbes of black pine in coastal forests
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to clarify what kind of unit planted forests form as an interaction system of plants, soil, and soil organisms, and what kind of system they are moving toward. Another aim is to draw out from these results what people should be careful about, and what they can devise, so that forests can be used sustainably.
*Illustrative imageAir Pollution Recorded in the Tree Rings of Sacred Trees
The lab examines the sulfur contained in the tree rings of two sacred trees (goshinboku) to read how clean the air was before the Industrial Revolution and how air pollution has changed over about 500 years.
*Illustrative imageRoots and Soil Animals in Hinoki Cypress Forests
In the most strongly acidic soils among forest soils, the lab showed that the fine roots of hinoki cypress create living space for soil animals on the soil surface, forming a distinctive ecosystem.
*Illustrative imageRoots and Microbes of Black Pine in Coastal Forests
Toward the regeneration of coastal forests destroyed by tsunamis, the lab showed that in gravel layers the taproots of black pine grow at different speeds from tree to tree, and that saprotrophs attached to deep fine roots may be involved in decomposing sloughed root bark.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Plant-Soil System Lab consist of faculty, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorToko Tanigawa
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: “Soil profile in Wuhlheide in Berlin-Köpenick” Leonhard Lenz / CC0 (cropped)
- Air Pollution Recorded in the Tree Rings of Sacred Trees: “Tree rings” Arnoldius / CC BY-SA 2.5 (cropped)
- Roots and Soil Animals in Hinoki Cypress Forests: “Pseudoscorpion - Soil Fauna Diversity” Cristina Menta / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Roots and Microbes of Black Pine in Coastal Forests: “Coastal Forest, Saaremaa, Estonia” KalervoK / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林社会共生学): “Temuan headman in his community forest garden” Pakbelang / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林生態学): “Boxwood (Buxus) and Beech (Fagus) tree forest canopy, Mezmay, Russia” Vyacheslav Argenberg / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (木材物理学): “Timber Wood - geograph.org.uk - 187429” Derek Harper / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林保護学): “Starr- -Sporobolus virginicus-insect survey suckvac with Forest-Kanaha Pond-Maui ( )” Forest and Kim Starr / CC BY 3.0 us (cropped)
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