The Satoyama ecosystem is an environment that people have maintained for their own lives. It contains a great variety of species and is composed of a complex interrelationship. The benefits that this biodiversity provides us are called ecosystem services. Insects, in particular, occupy an inconspicuous but important place in the ecosystem.
Pollination of crops by insects visiting flowers is one example, and it is also essential for the reproduction of many wild plants. In recent years, however, habitat fragmentation, environmental pollution, and the invasion of non-native competitors have led to a serious decline in biodiversity in native ecosystems. In order to understand the current situation and find solutions, it is important to study interactions among species and communities at various scales.
My research focuses on the interactions between flowering insects (mainly bees) and plants in Satoyama environments, ranging from basic ecology to agricultural applications.
My main research themes are
1) Interactions between non-native plant species and native flowering insects
-Foraging behavior of native bumblebees using non-native plants
2) Evolution of foraging and reproductive strategies of social bees
-Adaptive significance of non-nectar plant-using behavior in social bumblebees
-Evolution of foraging behavior using scent marks in solitary bumblebees
-Mechanisms of sleeping group formation by solitary bumblebees
-Hierarchy among individuals in a pseudo-society
3) Sustainable utilization of pollination services in Satoyama ecosystems and conservation of wild bees
-Effects of the surrounding landscape and flowering plants on pollination services in crop production
-Relationship between the environment used by wild bumblebees and their pollination services
4) Research on the basic ecology of flower-visiting insects
Undergraduate and graduate students are asked to conduct research on their own topics or to deal with various insects in addition to bees.