Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Island ecology is known worldwide as a biodiversity hotspot. Naturally, Japan is one of these islands. The number of endemic species that can be seen only in Japan surpasses those of the US or the European continent (e.g., amphibians and reptiles). What supports the richness of the Japanese ecosystem is that what we call “the Land of Abundant Reed Plains and Rice Fields”, the rural and agricultural environment created and protected by our ancestors. It is not a virgin-state-nature, but a fertile ecosystem created by the human hands, where the balance between human activities and the survival of plants and animals existed.
However, the post-WWII energy revolution and the declining birthrate and an aging population have exhausted rural society itself, and at the same time, biodiversity has been rapidly disappearing. The investment in infrastructure aiming to recover the exhausted rural communities has led to a vicious cycle of further deterioration of the species habitat. As a result, the once harmonious relationship between humans and plants has turned hostile.
We will research to clarify the actual conditions of the organisms that live in rural societies and find a way to coexist with us once again.

• Reproductive status of Ezo salamanders in artificial wetlands
• Conservation effects of artificial corridors for Siberian flying squirrel
• Replication of the distribution of fishes nation-wide the period from the Edo era to the present
  A Study on the impact of the "Survey on Lives in Paddy Fields and Surrounding Environment" on the local community
• Ecological research on the Hokkaido domestic invasive species, Tokyo daruma pond frog
• Real-time monitoring using UAV of vegetation recovery after a disaster