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Tropical Forest Environment Lab
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The lab studies on site the diverse organisms of tropical forests and the cycling of elements.
AboutAbout the lab
Understanding tropical forest diversity through how ecosystems function.
The Tropical Forest Environment lab conducts a wide range of research centered on the physiological ecology of tropical plants, the biodiversity of tropical forests, and the restoration of ecosystem services.
Every year, many students carry out fieldwork in Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Panama, Madagascar, and various parts of Japan.
Undergraduates are assigned to the lab in their fourth year (graduate students belong to the Division of Forest Science, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- Phosphorus
- An element essential for plant growth. It is often scarce in old tropical soils.
- Ecosystem services
- The benefits that ecosystems provide to people, such as storing water and storing carbon.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab's research centers on the physiological ecology of tropical plants, the biodiversity of tropical forests, and the restoration of ecosystem services. It investigates how forests function through the links between plants and soil, such as leaf litter decomposition and soil phosphorus.
*Illustrative imageWarming and leaf litter decomposition
Along a mountain elevation gradient, the lab studied the decomposition of leaf litter from Siebold's beech and Maries' fir. When Maries' fir litter was moved to the warmer beech forest, decomposition slowed to the rate of beech litter, showing the importance of the relationship between plants and soil.
*Illustrative imageTropical trees that live on phosphorus-poor soils
In a tropical forest in Panama, the lab compared the roots of trees that prefer phosphorus-poor soils with those of trees that prefer phosphorus-rich soils. It found that the more a tree prefers phosphorus-poor soil, the more it invests in enzymes that take up forms of phosphorus that are hard to break down.
MembersFaculty
The Tropical Forest Environment lab consists of faculty, administrative assistants, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.
- ProfessorHiroko Kurokawa
- Associate ProfessorRyota Aoyagi
- Program-Specific Associate ProfessorROSS Samuel
- Assistant ProfessorTakayuki Kaneko
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: “Palawan Island, Tropical rainforest, Philippines” Vyacheslav Argenberg / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Warming and leaf litter decomposition: “Moss-covered decaying log on a forest floor” Krishna k. sahh / CC0 (cropped)
- Tropical trees that live on phosphorus-poor soils: “Tropical roots” Ramonbicudo / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林生態学): “Smoke-filtered Sun on the Forest Canopy ( )” Forest Service - Northern Region / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (森林利用学): “Dülmen, Kirchspiel, Bauerschaft Börnste” Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (樹木細胞学): “Resin Canals” Bweil2 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (森林生物学): “Sika Deer 30123652” belvedere04 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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