Agricultural Ecology LAB Yamagata Univ. 山形大学農業生態学分野

 This August 17, 2021, Sagae San and I went to Nakayama village. Sagae visited and collected some species in the traps. As for me, I observed the changes in the experimental plot; in fact, the flowering has started, the color of the field is good and the height of the plants too. I and Sagae San had the opportunity to observe a mud snail moving in the water drawing a small line like a road and at the same time it was a shallow tillage. There are still many observations that we will make to better understand the activities of mud snails in rice fields.

  Processing organic waste using black soldier fly technology offers a wonderful alternative for sustainable organic waste management and city sanitation . The substrates that the flies thrive in are most often agricultural food waste and refuse from food processing industries. In the larval stage they feed voraciously on a variety of organic waste and efficiently converts nitrogen compounds and carbohydrates into larval biomass. In our laboratory we mostly receive food waste from cafeterias and farm waste for example   food scrap trimmings, left over produce, vegetable waste, mushroom waste, discarded fruit and any kind of produce in general, rice rolls, fish and chicken scrap (including bones), cereals etc. We realized that the larvae break down the waste faster when it was cut, shredded, mashed or broken up to increase the surface area and allow larvae better access to the discarded waste as it decays . Our sensei was kind enough to get us a processing machine relieving u...

Food losses become a problem for all countries around the world. One third of the food is lost for a lot of reasons. Food losses are also responsible for climate change if we do not manage the waste properly. Our laboratory now is concerned about this issue but we never think this will become a problem if we do not have any plan to make the change. Recently, we are developing and researching Black soldier fly (BSF). BSF has become one of our topics for study. Can you imagine how amazing this creature is? This creature size is not big but they can consume a big amount of food. BSF basically is beneficial as they do not spread any diseases even though they consume waste. Our lab has processed more than 100 kg of food waste as feed for BSF Larvae in two months. But this project is just a beginning. We hope we can develop more about the potential of BSF for the communities.  食糧の損失は、世界中のすべての国にとって問題になっています。 食べ物の3分の1は多くの理由で失われます。 廃棄物を適切に管理しないと、食糧の損失も気候変動の原因になります。 私たちの研究室は現在この問題を懸念していますが、変...

On August 10, 2021, I went to Kampung Naga (Naga Village) located in Tasikmalaya, West Java. I went with a few staff and students from the faculty by car in the morning. At this pandemic, we are supposed to be at home or not allowed to going anywhere but this one is an exception. We got permission for this trip since we are all in a full dose of vaccination and have to do the health protocols strictly. We travelled from Jatinangor to Kampung Naga for about 2,5 hours. When we arrived, the village was really quiet. All the shops that used to open now were closed. This is the first time I saw the village in this condition, as we knew this village is known as a traditional village that still maintains local wisdom and is also a destination for tourism. We were welcomed by Mr. Cahyan as one of the guides from the locals. He told us about the situation during the pandemic in the village and it was good to hear that no covid-19 infected the locals but still, the economic income of the village...

  The other day, I went to do part time job in fishery institute of tsuruoka with some laboratory members. I really enjoyed it because I had not been involved with fishery industry but I was interested in it. Work was making mark on juvenile flatfishes will be released to sea. We made mark on flatfishes by cutting dorsal fins using chisels. While flat fishes can be marked with chisel, other fishes are marked with scissors, brand and so on. Flatfishes are usually have blackish color but I sometimes saw individuals have less color. Those individuals will be eaten by predators easily after being released to sea because they can not hide. I had opportunities I talked about sea creatures in English as I joined activity with international students. At that time, we talked about how we call “namako” in English. I knew “namako” was “sea cucumber” in English after searching. It is interesting ！ Ayu, the fish known well in Japan, are called ayu in English also because they are rarely seen in...

 Paddy in the mountain area has a pond beside it. In the case of Nakayama village, it is to increase the temperature of the water that comes from the stream. Because stream water made by melting snow is too cold for paddy plants.  Pond beside paddy has another very important function, is habitat for animals. The Paddy field will be dried to heavest, then install water again in spring. It means aquatic animals lose habitat in early autumn until winter. However, the pond keeps plenty of water the whole of the year. This is really important for aquatic animals like the dragonfly, water beetle,  and some amphibians, so on. 山間部の水田にはため池が作られている事があります。鶴岡の中山地区の場合、雪解けの冷たい沢から水を引くため、いったんため池で水を温めてから水田に入れる、という機能があるはずです。このような田んぼ脇のため池にはもう一つ重要な役割があります。生き物に生息地を提供します。水田は収穫のために初秋に落水し、春にまた潅水します。つまりその間、水生生物は生息地を失います。しかし一年中豊富な水を保ち続けるため池はヤゴや水生甲虫、両生類にとって非常に重要なのです。