Biodiversity and phosphorous metabolism in watershed ecosystems: a blood vessel hypothesis

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We examined how human activities disturb nutrient balances and how the resultant nutrient imbalances affect biodiversity and its ecosystem functioning in the Yasu and Ado River Watersheds. We got some ecological knowledge on relationships between fluvial biodiversity and its nutrient cycling functions, using a variety of methods, such as phosphate oxygen isotope analysis, hydrological modeling on nutrient spiral metrics and particulate phosphate speciation analysis with sequential extraction, to study phosphorus cycling in the river ecosystems.