Toda Lab Project Soka University Faculty of Engineering
III. Recycling Society
The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (2014-2016)
Overview
In recent years, the excessive growth of freshwater aquatic weeds has become the major source of various environmental problems in shallow lakes, rivers and irrigation channel in Japan. For instance, in South Basin of Lake Biwa (the largest lake in Japan), submerged-type aquatic weeds have been covering more than 90% of the lake surface and causing social/economic problems such as fishery disturbance, foul odor and deterioration of tourism attractiveness. In this research project, we have been focusing on 1) formulating sustainable aquatic weed management standard to maintain healthy lake ecosystem, and 2) establishing fundamental technology for effective biorefinery from aquatic weed biomass.
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Verification experiment for preventing sea desertification in Shin-Kamigoto, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan (2014-2016)
Overview
In rocky areas along the shore, various seaweeds generally grow abundantly from the water’s edge to the dozens of meters. Such seaweed beds play an important role as feeding sites and/or safe houses for larvae and juveniles, maintaining their survival rate. Therefore, seaweed beds contribute to conservation of fishery resources. Recently, however, seaweed beds in many coastal areas in Japan have decreased and turned into “Desert seas”. Against such a background, our laboratory has been engaged on verification experiment of sea desertification prevention by fertilizing nutrients. This research project is a commissioned project by Shin-Kamigoto, Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan.
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