Soil is a natural resource for food production as well as the habitat for various animals, plants and microbes, and the field of material cycles in the global environment. Proper soil management and sustainable use of productivity and other functions are extremely important for the survival of humankind.
The research theme of our division is "Establishment of the basis of sustainable production with data-driven soil management." In this study, we develop databases and technology regarding soil environment as follows. 1) Improvement of soil maps including high-accuracy, update, and linkage with data related to soil management, 2) Development of new diagnosis techniques for soil physicochemical properties, soil microbes, and plant physiology, 3) Elucidation of flow and dynamics of reactive nitrogen that is important as a plant nutrient and an environmental load substance, 4) Preparation of basic databases of agro-environmental information (base registries), 5) Development of new data collection techniques such as remote sensing with a drone.
Our goal is to develop the soil management methods that enable both high productivity and environmental conservation, based on the results of above-mentioned research. In addition, we intend to contribute to the society generally by supplying open data, i.e. digital soil maps and corresponding soil properties data, for various users.
