JP

Organization

Research Division

Endowed Research Division
Earthquake Induced Tsunami Risk Evaluation Lab (Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance)
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (Engineering)
Research Subject(s)
I have interesting in the resilience of ecosystems to natural and human disturbance, such as floods, tsunamis and land use change. I am working on environmental DNA for macroinvertebrate communities in riverine and coastal areas from field to publish. To explore the sustainable future, I am aiming to know how to indicate the state of ecosystem and to quantify of ecosystem values using eDNA.
Key Words
environmental DNA (eDNA) / macroinvertebrate / Eco-DRR / biodiversity / environmental assessment
Website
Research Activities

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a novel biological monitoring method for wildlife in larger areas for longer periods of time (see the below figure). I am examining the feature of biological information from eDNA targeting aquatic insect groups (e.g., mayfly, caddisfly, and stonefly) that connect the food webs of ecosystems. Currently, I am trying to apply the eDNA not only freshwater invertebrates, but also terrestrial and coastal invertebrates to see the ecosystem connection.

Selected Works

Uchida, N., Kubota, K., Aita, S., Kazama, S. (2020) Aquatic insect community structure revealed by eDNA metabarcoding derives indices for environmental assessment, PeerJ, 8: e9176. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9176.

Uchida, N., Kubota, K., Aita, S., Kazama, S. (2020) Time-series transition of the community structure of aquatic insects at middle domain of Natori river basin in Miyagi Prefecture as revealed by eDNA metabarcoding analysis (in press)

Uchida, N., Kubota, K., Aita, S., Kazama, S. (2019) Relationship between stream insects' biomass and environmental DNA derived by metabarcoding and quantitative PCR, Journal of Japan Society of Civil Engineering Ser G (Environmental Research) 75(7):Ⅲ_281-Ⅲ_288, DOI: 10.2208/jscejer.75.7_III_281 (in JP with EN abstract)

Selected Memberships
  • Japan Society of Civil Engineers
  • Ecology and Civil Engineering Society (Japan)
  • The Ecological Society of Japan
  • The eDNA Society (Japan)
Selected Awards
  • 'Incentive award for Construction Engineering Researches', Foundation for Construction (2020)
  • 'Dean's award', Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University (2017)
  • 'Outstanding presenter', JSCE 2016 Annual Meeting (2016)
Others

'Invited speaker' 1er Encuentro Internacional "Construcción y uso de indicadores biológicos de calidad de agua en base a macroinvertebrados acuáticos en el sistema TDPS: Experiencias y desafíos" (Bolivia, online, 2020.09.16)