Department of Global Agricultural Sciences

Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at The University of Tokyo

Our staff

Name	Kazuhiko Kobayashi
Position	Professor
Department	Department of Global Agricultural Sciences Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences The University of Tokyo
Professional Experience & Education	1977-1983: Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Experiment Station, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Tsu, Mie, Japan 1983-1984: National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,Tsukuba, Japan 1984-2003: National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,Tsukuba, Japan 1987-1988: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA 2003-: The University of Tokyo
Phone	+81 3 5841 8045
Email	aclasman@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Disciplines

Agronomy, Plant Science, Meteorology, Environmental Science

Research interests

■ Research background In Asia, the large population with developing economy is driving the fast-growing demands for foods and energy. The region as a whole has so far managed to meet the demands, and many countries have enjoyed the improvements in human nutrition and the quality of life. The increased production of foods and energy has, however, resulted in deterioration of the environment and wide-spread loss of ecosystem services. Continuation of this trend could bring more damages than benefits, and eventually leave them nothing but damaged lands and waters. While technical countermeasures may fall short of preventing all the damages, scientifically sound prediction of the growing threats could facilitate societal decisions to change the course of development away from the disastrous future. ■ Our research Our research topics include impacts of climatic change, sea-level rise and increasing surface ozone concentration on agriculture. We also focus on adaptation of agriculture to climatic change. We have visited lowland paddies in Mekong Delta in Vietnam, met apple growers in northern Japan, and conducted computer simulation of the greenhouse gas emission from the Japanese tea fields. We also installed the world's first facility called Ozone-FACE in farmers' fields in Yangzhou, China. In the Ozone-FACE, rice and wheat are grown under elevated ozone concentration in farmers' fields without any enclosures. Our research approach thus includes field survey, field experiment, and computer simulation across the disciplines of agronomy, ecology, and biogeochemistry. We hope that our studies will contribute to better understandings of the climatic and atmospheric change impacts on agriculture and to increased capability of agricultural adaptations to the changing environment in Asia as well as other regions of the world. ■ Major publications 1. Smil V., Kobayashi K. (2012). Japan's Dietary Transition and Its Impacts. The MIT Press, Cambridge, USA. 2. Tanaka A., Kobayashi K., Toriyama K. (2012). Nitrogen supply via internal nutrient cycling of residues and weeds in lowland rice farming. Field Crops Research 137, 251-260. 3. Tang H., Liu G., Han Y., Zhu J., Kobayashi K. (2011). A system for free-air ozone concentration elevation with rice and wheat: control performance and ozone exposure regime. Atmospheric Environment 45, 6276-6282. 4. Fujisawa M., Kobayashi K. (2011). Climate change adaptation practices of apple growers in Nagano, Japan. Mitigation and Adaptation of Strategies for Global Change 16, 865-877. 5. Zhu X., Feng Z., Sun T., Liu X., Tang H., Zhu J., Guo W., Kobayashi K. (2011). Effects of elevated ozone concentration on yield of four Chinese cultivars of winter wheat under fully open-air field conditions. Global Change Biology 17, 2697-2706. 6. Feng Z., Pang J., Kobayashi K., Zhu J., Ort D.R. (2011). Differential responses in two varieties of winter wheat to elevated ozone concentration under fully open-air field conditions. Global Change Biology 17, 580-591. 7. Feng Z., Pang J., Nouchi I., Kobayashi K., Yamakawa T., Zhu J. (2010). Apoplastic ascorbate contributes to the differential ozone sensitivity in two varieties of winter wheat under fully open-air field conditions. Environmental Pollution 158, 3539-3545. 8. Van D.T.H., Kobayashi K. (2010). Farmers' adaptation to sea-level rise and salinity intrusion: A case study on sedge growers in coastal Vietnam. Tropical Agriculture and Development 54, 76-83. 9. Fujisawa M., Kobayashi K. (2010). Apple (Malus pumila var. domestica) phenology is advancing due to rising air temperature in northern Japan. Global Change Biology 16, 2651-2660. 10. Aizawa M., Can N.D., Hao N.V., Kurokura H., Kobayashi K. (2009). Changes in rice farmers' agronomic practices in response to changes in hydrological conditions for salinity prevention in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Tropical Agriculture and Development 53, 33-42.