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

  Transmission potential of human schistosomes can be driven by resource competition among snail intermediate hosts. Predicting and disrupting transmission of human parasites from wildlife hosts or vectors remains challenging because ecological interactions can influence their epidemiological traits. Human schistosomes, parasitic flatworms that cycle between freshwater snails and humans, typify this challenge. Human exposure risk, given water contact, is driven by the production of free-living cercariae by snail populations. Conventional epidemiological models and management focus on the density of infected snails under the assumption that all snails are equally infectious. However, individual-level experiments contradict this assumption, showing increased production of schistosome cercariae with greater access to food resources. We built bioenergetics theory to predict how resource competition among snails drives the temporal dynamics of transmission potential to humans and tested...

  In BSF production processes, it is important to achieve the highest larval survival possible in order to reduce the demand for eggs and to achieve more efficiency in production. Previous small-scale studies have shown that BSFL mortality could depend on the substrate, temperature, and high water content in the substrate. BSFL mortality has been assessed in studies where there was a comparison between the different scales and densities, which also influence substrate temperature. The observed mortality values vary in different studies. For example, Myers et al. have grown the larvae on pig manure and observed more than 20% mortality, and Nguyen et al. have observed mortality values ranging from 20% to 50% based on the feed used, while Oonincx et al.also observed much higher values. The interaction between mortality and temperature is indeed an interesting topic for future research

 Hell everyone.I am Mao. The cherry blossoms finally bloomed in Tsuruoka in spring.I became a 4 graduate student. And I currently preparing for my graduation research and doing for a job hunting.The graduation research is based on the Black Solder Fly.From now on, I would like to learn a lot about the Black Solder Fly and proceed with it systematically.Job hunting is about to begin in earnest, and I will conduct interviews and competency tests.I want to think about the future and pursue job hunting for the longest working life. Thank you for the reading. 春になりついに鶴岡でも桜がさきました。私は4年生になり、現在卒業研究の準備と就職活動を行っています。卒業研究はアメリカミズアブを研究テーマにしています。これからアメリカミズアブについてたくさん知り、計画的に進めていきたいです。就職活動はこれから本格的に始まります。これから、面接や適性検査が行われていきます。 社会人という1番長い人生を生きることになるのでこれからの社会人生活のために将来のことを考えてしっかり考えていきたいです。 Writer Mao

 Waterfowl population is becoming the concern among researcher and environmentalist. The population decrease caused by the decreasing of wetlands number. In 1971, The Ramsar Convention was adopted where many countries agree to preserve with wise of wetlands, especially for waterfowls. The agreement held in Iran and Japan one of participant. The Ramsar Convention advocates the wise use of wetland by human or industries needs in harmony with the environmental. In Oyama area, Shimo-ike was built for agricultural purpose but this lake also become habitat for more than 20.000 birds, for instance swans, wild ducks and wild geese. This reservoir meet the standard of the Ramsar Convention and registered as the first Ramsar site in Yamagata Prefecture. To access this place you can use car, public bus or bicycle. If you use bicycle like me, it will take 20-30 minute there. My recommendation, please come in the autumn time closed with the winter season as you will see many waterfowls here. Ho...

  Black soldier flies are known to be extremely temperature-sensitive. Moreover, they are also highly sensitive to humidity as well. This variable has considerable implications on egg eclosion and hatching. Low humidity levels result in water loss through the egg membrane and additional desiccation. In a scientific paper published by L.A. Holmes, 25% relative humidity causes higher rates of desiccation and higher mortality rates on black soldier fly eggs. At 70% RH, adults lived 2-3days longer than adult black soldier flies subjected to lower RH levels. Therefore, the higher the humidity of a given environment, the higher the chances for a more successful colony. Eclosion and hatching at lower RH levels; however, is still possible. Relative humidity of 30-90% promotes mating and oviposition when eggs and larvae are reared in a 27 ° C environment. The wide range of relative humidity is indicative of Hermetia illucens ability to adapt given the temperature is consistent. In indoor r...

                                               HAZARD VS. RISK-BASED APPROACHES TO PROTECTING                             HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT FROM PESTICIDES                                                                      April 2021     What’s the difference between a hazard and risk-based approach? These two approaches are often presented as opposing. However, this is a mi...

ジャンボタニシって面白いですよね。いや、いろいろな意味でです、研究とかもちろんですが。他にもそうそう食べると結構うまい。インドネシアに行くとね、結構食べる場面あります。焼き鳥のようにして甘いたれで食べる。それが結構うまい。在来種のタニシよりも旨いっていう人がほとんど。そうそうこれ外来種で、日本の場合は台湾からきたといわれてます。  Apple snails are very interesting snails of a variety of snails. Because of its color, shocking pink, many of us feel uncomfortable when we find these eggs in the field. In fact, they cause much damage to rice plants, and their eggs are poisonous, and there are not many consumers of these eggs. But the taste is ok. Some people say this is better than native snails. Well, the apple snails are not native, but invasive species originally from South America, but the origin of the Japanese population came from Taiwan. Anyway, you may find this eaten occasionally in Indonesia, and surely you will like it.

  Black Soldier Fly (BSF) is a kind of fly native to south America. Today, it distributes to not only America continent but also Asia, Oceania, Africa and Europe area. This fly is attractive because it consumes food waste and can be used as animal feed. It is said that one adult oviposits egg cluster including 400 to 800 eggs. Some researchers in Japan investigates how much 5 kinds of food waste, vegetable, fruit, carbohydrate such as rice, fish and meat can be consumed by BSF larvae. According to the study, vegetable, fruit and carbohydrate are suitable for food waste reduction by BSF larvae. They described that protein content of food affects the weight of larva consuming it. Actually, the result showed larvae consuming mix food containing 5 kinds of food were heavier than those consuming simple food. It is thought that it is because of low protein content in vegetable and fruit and high protein in fish and meat. アメリカミズアブは南アメリカ原産のハエの仲間です。今日では、アメリカ大陸だけでなく、アジア、オセアニア、アフリカ、ヨーロッパ地域にも分...

  I love sweet food when it contains palm sugar. Palm sugar is made from palm plants and is a common plant here in Indonesia. The farmers will take the sap from its plant and boiling until it thickens then put it in a shaper until it hardens. Mostly sweet food that contains palm sugar here is traditional food and all of it is delicious. I usually make it as a drink when the temperature gets colder. I will mix it with ginger and boil it as a hot good sweetness to warm your body. This sugar is considered healthier than cane sugar and a good choice as an alternative to taste sweet. My mother always buys this sugar in the traditional market and makes it mandatory supplies in the kitchen.

 Drones, which have been used in various studies in recent years and are attracting increasing attention, have finally begun to be used in my research. It helps my research to take pictures of the paddy fields from above and get a full picture of them. You can get a bird's-eye view of the paddy field, so you can see at a glance how the paddy fields are covered with snow. It is easy to operate once you get used to it, and the images from the camera are displayed in real-time at your operator device(Smart Phone), you can fly it just like playing a video game.  近年様々な研究で活用され、注目が高まっているドローンをついに私の調査でもその使用を開始しました。上空から水田を撮影し、その全貌を把握するのに一役買っています。俯瞰してみることができるので水田の積雪の様子が一目瞭然です。操作も慣れれば簡単で、手もとにリアルタイムでカメラからの映像が表示されるので、テレビゲーム感覚で飛ばすことができます。

 Good evening all. Job hunting started in earnest on March 1st today.I can now make reservations for entries and briefing sessions for each company.There are many companies, so it's hard to choose the company I want to work for.I'm also worried about whether it will work or not.However, I want to prepare well beforehand. I will be in the fourth grade in April, and my graduation research will start.I would like to make a plan and prepare for it.I want to learn how to take care of Black Soldier Fly. Thank you for the reading. 今日3月1日から就職活動が本格的にスタートしました。各企業へのエントリーや説明会の予約等ができるようになりました。沢山の企業があるので、その中から自分が働きたい企業を選ぶのは大変です。また、上手くいくかどうかの不安もあります。しかし、しっかりと準備をして臨みたいです。4月から4年生になり、卒業研究も始まります。こちらのほうも計画を立てて準備していきたいです。アメリカミズアブについて行うので世話の方法をしっかり覚えていきたいです。 writer: Mao

Blood parrot is a hybrid fish artificially crossbred in Taiwan as early as the 1980s. Currently, the Blood parrot is one of the most popular and high-value ornamental fish because of its bright body color. However, the fish cannot synthesize their own carotenoid color. As body color is the major factor that affects the market value of ornamental fish, enhancing it by supplementing pigments in diets is necessary. In aquacu lture, synthetically manufactured carotenoids are used as pigmentation of fishes.    Golden apple snail eggs are usually cemented outside water have been said to contain 72 nmol carotenoids per gram . Previous studies have reported that natural or synthetic carotenoids such as astaxanthin can be used as an additive to enhance fish body coloration and antioxidant activity . Furthermore, additions dietary of astaxanthin extracted fro m golden apple snail eggs has also shown efficiency for improved skin pigmentation in fancy carp ( Cyprinus carpio ) Thus, ...

 The snow depth is more than 50 cm or 1m in my research field. Paddy field became snow plain. So that if someone visits the field it will be obvious by footprint. In this picture, someone is curious about my camera on the field. I guess it is a fox. Because a single footprint on the straight line is one of the features of a fox. Fox has a role as a predator in the ecosystem. So they also can be related to my study (Ecosystem of winter-flooded paddy). I have to check all of the organisms from microbe to apex predators. It is really excited me. 調査地では50㎝か1m以上積雪しています。夏場田んぼだった場所は見事な雪原になっています。そのため足跡がはっきりわかるため誰かが調査に入ればその痕跡が残ります。この写真では、何かがフィールドに仕掛けたカメラに近づいている事がわかります。おそらくこれはキツネです。キツネは直線状に1つづつ足跡を残す特徴があります。キツネは一般的には鳥や昆虫などを捕食する捕食者とされています。つまり、鳥に注目した私の調査にも関わってくる可能性が高いです。ミジンコなどの微生物から上位捕食者まで全ての生き物をチェックする必要がありそうです。

Today, I walked and passed the river closed with my apartment. In the river I saw some waterfowl there. It is very beautiful, isn't it???.  This is very interesting for me as I like to study about waterfowl nowadays. I checked some papers and articles showed the wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forest. Some scientist said 64% of wetlands disappeared since 1900’s. The population of waterfowl also decreased day by day. I started to think what is their role and how to conserve them? The answer is we just created their habitat and we know the most abundance of wetlands is rice fields. Rice fields is very good artificial habitat as provide a refugee and also food. Creating good environment will increase their population also. Now, I am thinking how many waterfowl species and population in my country? After I get back from here I will start to research it!

 ここ数か月は調子のよくなかったアメリカミズアブ飼育。調子の悪いミズアブ幼虫を毎日取り除く作業は本当に気が滅入るものでしたし、これからどうやって研究を続けていこうと真剣に考え抜きました。その努力のかいもあって、新年あけてから徐々に順調に回復し、それにしても本当にいろいろ対処を考えて迅速に実行しましたが、この頑張りは非常に楽しいものでしたね。おかげで今週は1ｋｇ以上の蛹を収穫し、3週間くらいで1万匹の成虫になることでしょう。大忙しだなこれは。 It was a very serious situation in ou BSF production in the past few months. It was so depressing to remove bad condition larvae every day from larval containers. It smelled no good, appeared very bad, but we did not know how we manage the situation for the better. BSF is one of the mainstream of our lab. So, if we lost it, it would be a serious problem in our study. Soon after the new year day, we have started many trials, and finally, it is now has been in recovery. In this week more than 1 kg of pupae we could harvest, and it is roughly becoming 10000 adults in the next few weeks.

 Black soldier fly is expected to solve food waste matter because it consumes various organic materials. Larvae can be sold as feed for animals after growing up because they contain rich nutrients such as protein. I found that they are sold for reptiles on the internet. Price is around 500 yen per 50g. Explanation of product says those larvae have high calcium consuming milk. Calcium seems to be important for reptiles as well as human. According to article, lack of calcium induces Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD), which often happen if human rear reptiles in wrong way. And balance between amount of calcium and phosphorus is important for absorbing calcium efficiently. Excess phosphorus inhibits absorbing of calcium. Therefore, if we consider the balance of calcium and phosphorus in bsf rearing, we can produce more valuable feed. 幼虫が種々の有機物を消費することから、食品廃棄物の処理への期待がされているアメリカミズアブ。廃棄物を処理した幼虫は、蛋白質などの栄養を多く含むことから動物の餌として販売できます。インターネットで調べると、爬虫類用の餌として販売されています。相場は 50g の幼虫で 500 円ほどです。ある製品の概要欄には、餌に牛...

If I have to tell which fruits I like the most, probably this one would be on my list. I called it “Jelly” fruit. This fruit has a plain flavor, but it’s fresh like you drink coconut water. The size is really handful to carry. I usually eat this with a spoon to scope the fruit. The locals called this one “Siwalan” fruit. This fruit can be found easily in East Java. So, it would be hard to find this fruit in Jakarta. I’m not sure if this one can be found as a canned food product but fresh products are always the best. You have to taste this fruit delight just in one bite!

  Estimates of how the different control variables for seven planetary boundaries have changed from 1950 to present. The green shaded polygon represents the safe operating space. Source: Steffen and al. 2015 Stratospheric ozone depletion The stratospheric ozone layer in the atmosphere filters out ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. If this layer decreases, increasing amounts of UV radiation will reach ground level. This can cause a higher incidence of skin cancer in humans as well as damage to terrestrial and marine biological systems. The appearance of the Antarctic ozone hole was proof that increased concentrations of anthropogenic ozone-depleting chemical substances, interacting with polar stratospheric clouds, had passed a threshold and moved the Antarctic stratosphere into a new regime. Fortunately, because of the actions taken as a result of the Montreal Protocol, we appear to be on the path that will allow us to stay within this boundary.   Loss of biosph...

I came across a pack of roasted locusts at the store the other day and decided to check their nutritional value and study a bit more about them. Locusts are a type of insect from the family Acrididae . They are known to swarm in huge numbers and can travel great distances, causing considerable damage to crops. However, in many African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries, locusts are considered a delicacy and eaten in abundance. Locusts are an excellent source of protein and contain a variety of fatty acids and minerals. Although not considered palatable by most Americans and Europeans, locusts are an important food source in many other countries.   According to the book "Insects" by Steve Parker, species of locusts vary in protein content from about 50 percent of dry weight to almost 60 percent, making them denser in protein than cows . Researchers have also noted that the cholesterol content in locusts is high, about 286 milligrams per 100 grams, which is higher than th...

 Good evening all. Today, I would like to write about the spread of COVID-19. As the spread of the coronavirus continues into the sixth wave, our lives have also changed dramatically.Yamagata Prefecture has also taken measures to prevent the spread of the virus, which has affected restaurants in many ways, including the time-saving operation of restaurants.Omicron strains are so highly infectious that you don't know when or where they will be infected.Therefore, I want to live a careful life with masks and disinfection. Also, I want to improve my immune system by living a regular life. Thank you for your reading. コロナウイルスの拡大が第6波まで広がり、私たちの生活はまた大きくへんかしています。山形県でも、蔓延防止措置が取られ、飲食店の時間短縮営業など様々な面で影響がでています。オミクロン株は感染力が非常に強いので、いつどこど感染してしまうか分かりません。だから、マスクと消毒をしっかりとし気をつけて生活をしていきたいです。また、規則正しい生活をして免疫力を高めていきたいです。 Writer Mao