Research Subjects

Theme：
It is hypothesized that organisms have evolved to acquire an ecologically and economically the most efficient system in the cycle of resource/energy utilization in nature, due to the continuous repetition of try and error for a very long time. To proof this 'eco'-system and to learn sustainability from the smart ecosystem, we must evaluate:
(1) how energy is preserved, transferred, stored, and consumed in biosphere where the photosynthesis of plants and phytoplankton can fix solar energy into organic compounds, and subsequently, the fixed energy is transferred and consumed in animals along food webs, and
(2) how the flux in physiological processes, which closely related to the energy cycle, is recorded in 'stable isotope ratios of organic compounds'.
The major objectives of our research group are therefore to illuminate/illustrate the energy cycle in organisms, food webs, and biosphere today and throughout geological time, by using molar balances and isotopic compositions (e.g., D/H, 13C/12C, 15N/14N) of organic compounds.
 
 
＜Current research subjects＞

• Adaptation of organisms to environmental changes (e.g., phenology, starvation, invasion，etc.)
• Adaptation of organisms to low temperature habitats
• Energetic and functional ecology in biogeochemical cycles
• Key processes for controlling isotopic compositions of organic compounds in organisms’ physiology
• Universality (as well as generality and predictable fluctuation) in the change of the isotopic composition of organic compounds
• Method for (and methodology using) compound- and position-specific isotope analysis of organic compounds, and physiological, ecological, and/or geochemical applications of the method/methodology developled.