The European Biodiversity Strategy asks EU Member States for an assessment, mapping and valuing of Ecosystem Services (ES). While terrestrial ES concept is advanced and different tools are available, they are largely lacking for coastal and marine systems. We develop a stepwise methodological process to assess ES in coastal and marine systems which we name Marine Ecosystem...
Seed hoarding animals may distinctly impact individual fitness of plants as well as plant community dynamics in terms of differential seed consumption and seed dispersal. Addressing methodological challenges and constraints in understanding the role of seed dispersal mutualisms, we tested different seed tagging methods for relatively small seeds. We selected two study areas with...
Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) have been widely employed in food web analysis. In lotic environments, periphyton is a major primary producer that makes a large contribution to food web production as well as carbon and nitrogen cycling. While the δ13C and δ15N values have many advantages as a natural tracer, the controls over their high spatial and...
Knowledge of the diet source and trophic position of organisms is fundamental in food web science. Since the 1980s, stable isotopes of light elements such as 13C and 15N have provided unique information on the food web structure in a variety of ecosystems. More recently, novel isotope tools such as stable isotopes of heavy elements, radioisotopes, and compound-specific isotope...
The 9th International Conference on Serpentine Ecology (ICSE) was held in Tirana and Pogradec (Albania) from June 5 to 9, 2017. More than 100 delegates from 29 countries around the world gathered to present their research on recent advances in: (i) ultramafic soils, (ii) biogeochemistry, (iii) diversity of ultramafic flora, microflora and fauna, (iv) ecophysiology of ultramafic...
Although quantitative data on interspecific interactions within complex food webs are essential for evaluation of assumptions, hypotheses, and predictions of ecological theories; empirical studies yielding quantitative data on complex food webs are very limited. Ecological information on body size, habitat use, and seasonality of the component species of food webs aids in...
The feeding ecology of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) during the breeding season in the Kano River basin, central Japan, was examined to clarify the trophic relationship between the cormorants and ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis altivelis) reared for mass release in the river. The ayu was most frequently found in stomachs of cormorants culled during the breeding season...
The article “Integrating isotopic, microbial, and modeling approaches to understand methane dynamics in a frequently disturbed deep reservoir in Taiwan”, written by Masayuki Itoh, Hisaya Kojima, Pei-Chi Ho, Chun-Wei Chang, Tzong-Yueh Chen, Silver Sung-Yun Hsiao, Yuki Kobayashi, Megumu Fujibayashi, Shuh-Ji Kao, Chih-hao Hsieh, Manabu Fukui, Noboru Okuda, Takeshi Miki, Fuh-Kwo...
This is the first large image dataset and occurrence records of marine organisms in the Northwest Pacific off Tohoku, Japan. This area suffered by Great East Japan Earthquake 2011 and continental shelf and slope off of this area considered one of the most productive areas both for fishery and primary production in the world because of the complex mixture of the Kuroshio Current...
A challenge of phenological research is to integrate remotely sensed observations obtained at different spatial and temporal scales to provide information that contains both a high temporal density and fine spatial scale observations. This study aims to improve the level of spatial detail and the temporal density required for efficient monitoring of vegetation phenology by...
Typhoon No. 15 in 1954 (Marie) caused catastrophic windthrow in Hokkaido, northern Japan. The Tomakomai District of the National Forest was one of the forests severely damaged. A study site was established in a stand of the National Forest within the jurisdiction of the Iburi East District Forest Office. The stand was located on the eastern slope of Mt. Tarumae at an elevation of...
The majority of nickel hyperaccumulator plant species have been discovered by screening using a field spot test based on dimethylglyoxime. Recently, the use of a portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy instruments has enabled non-destructive analyses of existing herbarium collections. Given that the family Phyllanthaceae globally has the greatest numbers of hyperaccumulators...
Ecosystem management in South Korea dramatically changed in the early 1970s, shifting from historical utilization of natural resources to a strong management system that included forest promotion and restoration. The socio-economic and biological context underpinning this effort and the ecological consequences of this new policy have not been studied in South Korea. We analyzed...
Tropical forests are characterized by high biodiversity and aboveground biomass growing on strongly weathered soils. However, the distribution of plant species and soils are highly variable even within a tropical region. This paper reviews existing and novel knowledge on soil genesis, plant and microbial physiology, and biogeochemistry. Typically, forests in Southeast Asia are...
The barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, is a model species for studying sexual selection, particularly female mate choice. Although there have already been several reviews of female mate choice and its geographic variation in this species, all of them have focused on secondary sexual characteristics. Here, for better understanding of the general pattern of female mate choice and their...
The impact of eutrophication on aquatic ecosystems remains an important topic in aquatic ecology; however, recent successes in water quality restoration in highly eutrophicated water bodies present new research potential regarding re-oligotrophication. Successfully reducing nutrient loading from sewage treatment through restoration activities, induces large changes in...
Shigeru Nakano was a Japanese ecologist whose work crossed boundaries among subdisciplines in ecology, between aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and between different languages and cultures. He published his first paper in 1985 while still an undergraduate, and is well known for his early research on the individual behavior of stream salmonids in dominance hierarchies. Shortly...
Ecologists have many ways to measure and monitor ecosystems, each of which can reveal details about the processes unfolding therein. Acoustic recording combined with machine learning methods for species detection can provide remote, automated monitoring of species richness and relative abundance. Such recordings also open a window into how species behave and compete for niche...
Our human-dominant world can be viewed as being built up in two parts, social and ecological systems, each consisting of multi-level organizations that interact in a complex manner. However, there are knowledge gaps among those interactions. In this paper, we focus on studies filling two types of gaps in the socioecological system, some of which are case studies in the East Asia...