Spitsbergen Island

This island is located in the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula. In here, there are international research institutions for the Arctic research. I reported a new species of Rhytimsa spp. (Masumoto et al. 2014), which is the pathogenic fungus of plants. By affecting the primary production of the host: polar willow, this fungus can intervene in the ecosystem carbon cycling (Masumoto et al. 2018a). It has also been reported the biophysiological characteristics of this species in tundra ecosystem, suggesting that global warming may increase the incidence of this disease (Masumoto et al. 2018b).

Kuujjuarapik

Kuujjuarapik, located along Hudson Bay on the Labrador Peninsula. This area has mosaic landscape of forest and tundra, experiencing the increasing of shrub species with global warming. Our research has shown that the shrub invasion alters the composition of soil fungi (Masumoto et al. 2021c) and enhances CO2 flux from soil to atmosphere (Masumoto et al. 2021a).

Salluit

This area is located at the northern end of the Labrador Peninsula. Here, even in a small hill, the soil environments from the top to the foot is different remarkably. We are investigating changes in vegetation or soil fungal composition along this environmental gradient (Kitagawa et al. 2022; Maumoto et al. 2023).

Pond Inlet

In this area, the northern part of Baffin Island, we also are investigating the relationship between vegetation and microbial compositions. Moreover, we are investigating the effects of Canadian goose on the flora and microbiota (Nishizawa et al. 2021).

Ellesmere Island

One of the most northern islands of the Earth. We are surveying the vegetation structure using visual estimation and a multispectral camera on drones, as well as soil feature and CO2 exchange between biosphere and atmosphere. We are trying to evaluate diversity or performance of the vegetation on widely range, by linking the field data and images of satellites.

Taisetsu 

Mt. Daisetsu is an alpine zone in Hokkaido, Japan, in where, tundra vegetation is widespread. We are surveying the vegetation structure using visual estimation and a multispectral camera on drones. Our aim is to perform vegetation evaluation on highly accurate and widely range, by linking the field data and images of satellites.

Sugadaira

Sugadaira Kogen is a highland in Japan, where has a cool climate even in summer and a heavy snow area. A new species of Rhytisma spp. also was discovered, which is closely related to Rhytisma spp. in the Arctic (Masumoto et al. 2015). Regardless of regional differences between Japan and the Arctic, it has been shown that Rhytisma breeding requires water, especially snow-thawed water.