Forests Under Changing Climates

Professor Akihiko Ito has long been working on the development and applications of a terrestrial ecosystem model for climate studies. He earned his Ph. D. degree from the Institute of Biological Sciences, the University of Tsukuba, in 2001. As a project researcher, he worked at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan, from 2001 to 2005. Following that, he moved to the National Institute for Environmental Studies as a senior researcher of the Earth System Division until 2023. Now, he has been a faculty member of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences since 2023. His majors are ecological modelling, plant ecophysiology, biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen, and global environmental change. He has used the model to investigate the mechanisms and evaluate the potential of terrestrial ecosystems, especially forests, to mitigate ongoing climate change through optimal management. A part of the study was conducted using the Earth system model, allowing him to investigate the interactive feedback between the atmosphere and the biosphere. Also, the model has been used to assess the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems based on future scenarios. Recently, he has been working on the monitoring system of greenhouse gas budget from the city to global scales and on the development of an integrated biosphere model. In addition to field studies, satellite remote sensing becomes increasingly important for the development and validation of the model.