T. Yasutaka, Y. Kanai, M. Kurihara, T. Kobayashi, A. Kondoh, T. Takahashi, Y. Kuroda
Radioprotection 55(3) 215-224 2020年7月 査読有り
This paper describes the involvement of the residents of the Yamakiya district of the Kawamata town, a former evacuation area after the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP), in the on-going research activities of the authors on the behaviour of radioactive caesium in the environment. By relying on dialogue, measuring radiation, and other collaborative practices, this involvement enabled a series of actions to be taken to resolve the challenges related to the recovery after the lifting of the evacuation order that were appreciated by the residents. The paper also discusses the effects of the interactive program led by the Yamakiya School organized by the authors in cooperation with the residents including among others lectures, voluntary works and radiological surveys on local issues. Based on the above, the authors make recommendations on the desirable form of relationship between residents and experts after an event of large-scale environmental pollution including radiological contamination. Through these activities the authors have also gradually changed their research approach.
We measured CO<sub>2</sub> emission rate from pruning materials by in vitro incubation under the optimum condition for microbial activity and estimated percentages mineralizable carbon to total carbon (mineralizable C %) of various pruning materials (different species and parts), using kinetic analysis. Depend on the species and parts, i.e. fine branches (diameter<10mm), thick branches (10mm<diameter<30mm), or trunk, mineralizable C % were changed from 2 to 41%. These differences were reflected the C / N ratio of the pruning materials. Mineralizable C % were less than 15%, 15~20%, more than 20% correspond to the C/N>100, 30<C/N<100, C/N<30, respectively.
Terumasa Takahashi, Yoshiaki Kanzawa, Tatsuaki Kobayashi, Darlene Zabowski, Robert Harrison
LANDSCAPE AND ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING 11(1) 139-145 2015年1月 査読有り
In order to clarify the effects of urbanization on the chemical characteristics of forest soils, we investigated several surface soil chemical characteristics, including (1) carbon (C) concentration, (2) concentrations of exchangeable bases, (3) cation exchangeable capacity (CEC), and (4) soil pH of forests in the Tamagawa basin, Japan. We defined the road ratio as level of urbanization. Study sites were located in areas with varying levels of surrounding urbanization. Surface soil concentration of exchangeable bases (especially calcium and magnesium), percent base saturation, and pH (H2O) increased with an increasing road ratio; in other words, with increased urbanization, C and CEC were unrelated to road ratio. One reason for the observation of increasing exchangeable bases with increasing urbanization appears to be the deposition of dust. The increase in exchangeable bases concentration (and % base saturation) corresponds to increases in soil pH.
In order to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide emission from pruning materials which were spread over the soil surface, we investigated the characteristics of carbon mineralization in pruning materials. We continuously measured carbon dioxide evolution from the powdery pruning materials mixed with soil as source of microbe under optimum conditions for microbial growth for fifty one days, and estimated C mineralization potential in pruning materials using kinetics modeling. It is estimated that 17 - 19% of carbon contained in pruning materials was mineralized over the fifty one-day period. From the result and previous studies, the estimated percentages of residue, humified and mineralized carbon originally contained in the pruning materials were approximately 50%, 30% and 20% respectively.
The effects of selective cutting management on the characteristics of nutrition dynamics of coppice forest ecosystem that had been indicated by soil carbon contents and soil microbial activities were investigated in Noyama-Kita-Rokudoyama Park,Tokyo.And the suitability of the selection management cycle that had been established 20 years were examined.The soil carbon contents and soil microbial activities were decreased after selective cutting and restored to the same level with before cutting within 10 years.Therefore,it was concluded that present forest management cycle (20 years) was enough for restoration of the ecosystem,and was suitable for maintenance of nutrition dynamics.
LANDSCAPE AND ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING 4(2) 139-142 2008年11月 査読有り
Because of difficulties in estimating the carbon fixation rate, we alternatively investigated the C content of the soil in 19 urban parks in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The C content of the soil under three vegetation types was measured: grassland/ turf ("turf"); tree-planting area with plant management (with weeding and removal of fallen leaves) ("tree-planting area"); coppice or tree-planting area without plant management ("coppice"); bare land was used as control. Average C contents of turf, tree-planting area and coppice were about 82, 79 and 120 Mg-C ha(-1), respectively, and were larger than the C content of trees in an urban park, as estimated in previous studies. The results indicate that the soils of urban parks function as a C sink.
We investigated the changes in chemical and biological characteristics of composting of plant waste from pruning to obtain the fundamental knowlege for planning objective decision of composting stage. The composting was carried out using addition of compost as submaterial and frequently airing. The composting process was devided into three stages. In the first stage, increasing of humus concentration, decreasing of easily decomposable organic matter, increase and decrease of microbial activity and losing inhibition of germination were founded. In the second stage, increasing nitrogen concentration and exchangeable bases and increase and decrease of microbial activity were founded. In the third stage, slight decreasing of exchangeable bases were founded. Therefore, humus concentration were available for the index of end of the first stage. It is possibe that microbial activity was available for the objactive index of composting stage by combining with humus concentration or period of time of compostiong.