Off-Site Facilities and Fieldwork (pamphlet)
In addition to its main campus at Tsukuba, NIES has several facilities located around Japan that are used for monitoring the environment and other tasks.
Environmental research cannot be done entirely in a laboratory: researchers must get out into the field to see what is happening and collect reliable data. NIES researchers perform fieldwork in a variety of locations around Japan. Through this fieldwork, we are able to detect even very minute changes that are happening in the environment. In addition, the data that we accumulate over the long-term serves as an important record of environmental variations. We offer these materials to research communities so that they can be put to good use.
Monitoring the Atmosphere Along a Highway in Kawasaki
We are doing research on urban air pollution, in particular the atmospheric pollution resulting from vehicle exhaust fumes. Our research combines both experiments that take place at our lab and surveys that we do at the site in Kawasaki.
Research Station for the Preservation and Enhancement of the Water Environment
This research station, located on the banks of Lake Kasumigaura, is used to study the mechanisms of eutrophication and to develop strategies to prevent it from happening. The station covers a total area of 7 hectares.
Global Environmental Monitoring Stations
We have two stations for monitoring greenhouse gases. Both of them are located far away from major human activity. One is at the southern point of Japan, on Hateruma Island which is part of the Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa. The other is in the northeast, at Cape Ochi-ishi on Nemuro Peninsula in Hokkaido.
Ecosystem Research Field II
This field is located about 3km to the west of the main campus in Tsukuba. It is used for various long-term monitoring projects, such as measuring photosynthesis in trees and the speed of vegetation regrowth.
Rikubetsu Integrated Stratospheric Observation Station
NIES and the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory at Nagoya University rent a room at the Rikubetsu Astronomical Observatory in Hokkaido. At this location, we observe vertical ozone profiles with a millimeter-wave radiometer, harmful ultraviolet rays with a brewer spectrophotometer and other equipment, and stratospheric vertical air temperature distributions with laser radar.
Monitoring Baseline Water Quality at Lake Mashu (Hokkaido)
We have been conducting comprehensive research on the water environment of Lake Mashu since 1980. Since there are no human activities taking place in the catchment areas of the lake, the amount of pollution running into the lake from the ground is small, which means that it can be used for long-term baseline monitoring of a lake in its natural state.
Fuji Hokuroku Flux Observation Site / Teshio Carbon Cycle and Larch Growth Experimental Site
We use these sites to monitor the carbon cycle in forests in order to establish methods to observe and assess the carbon dioxide absorption capacity of forest ecosystems.
Monitoring the Water Quality of Lake Kasumigaura
We have been monitoring the water quality of Lake Kasumigaura since 1977.
Endocrine Disrupter Research at Tokyo Bay
We have been conducting long-term observations of water quality, bottom sediment, and demersal fish and shellfish in Tokyo Bay. We are studying the environmental changes and their relationship to human activity.