Lab's farewell in September 2024
On September 20th, 2024, the commencement for September graduates was held, and four students in the laboratory were awarded a Master's degree in Environmental Studies. Congratulations! We wish you all the best as you enter the world of work. We were photographed by the Public Relations Office at GSFS, which was posted on X. Group photo in the student room
Deep learning for multilabel classification of coral reef conditions in the Indo-Pacific using underwater photo transect method
Research Overview Because coral reef ecosystems face human activities and climate change threats, coral reef conservation programs are implemented worldwide. Monitoring coral health provides references for guiding conservation activities. However, current labor-intensive methods result in a backlog of unsorted images, highlighting the need for automated classification. Few studies have simultaneously utilized accurate labels along with updated algorithms and datasets. This study aimed to create a dataset representing common coral reef conditions and associated stressors in the Indo-Pacific. Concurrently, it assessed existing classification algorithms and proposed a new multilabel method for automatically detecting coral reef conditions and extracting ecological information. A dataset containing over 20,000 high-resolution coral images of different health […]
30th anniversary of the opening of the Penta-Ocean Construction Technical Research Institute at Nasu
On September 5, 2024, Dr. Sasaki participated in the 30th anniversary event of the Technical Research Institute at Nasu, Penta-Ocean Construction Co., Ltd. It took about 15 minutes by shuttle bus from Nasushiobara Station to the institute. We visited the Penta-Ocean Museum and learned about the history of the company's development. The cutter head of the dredger used in the dredging of the Suez Canal is a highlight. Model of a dredger (the tip extending to the lower right is the cutter). Cutter attached to dredger. 30th Anniversary Lecture
Participated in a talk show at the Zushi Sailing Festival
I was invited by Prof. Tajima at UTokyo-Hongo, who is working on coastal erosion issues in Zushi Bay, Kanagawa, Japan, to be involved in some of the studies on the restoration of the seagrass and seaweed beds and environmental conservation in the bay. I was invited to participate in a talk show at the Zushi Sailing Festival on June 2, 2024. The north side of the beach has been eroded by longshore sediment transport from north to south, and rocky substrates have appeared. Sand is deposited on the south side, and a sand-bypassing is being implemented to return it to the north side, but cost is an issue. Other measures, […]
Marbled Sole Fishing Survey in Tokyo Bay
On March 31, 2024, the project team for creating habitat for living things under the Public-Private Cooperation Forum for Tokyo-Bay Restoration conducted a fishing survey for marbled sole in Tokyo Bay. Tokyo recorded a summer day of 28 degrees Celsius, with strong southerly winds and high waves, so we were unable to go to the originally planned fishing grounds and caught only one marbled sole. To avoid high waves, we went to places we had not gone before. Maruhachi in Heiwajima Participants of PT members
Lab's farewell
March 22, 2024 was the farewell party of our laboratory. I would like to thank Dr. Endo and Dr. Chen for their support of our research and educational activities. Dr. Nakamura, a doctoral student, successfully received his doctoral degree and was awarded the Dean's Award of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences. Congratulations! Thank you very much for your kind attention to the 10th anniversary of the Sasaki Laboratory. I look forward to your further activities and collaboration in the future.
Lab's welcome party
We held a welcome party for Dr. Matsuba, who was appointed as a lecturer of coastal environment group on February 1, and Mr. Deng, who came from the doctoral course of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a special research student on March 1. With Prof Satoh, Head of Department
Lab's Karuizawa skiing and snowboarding trip in February 2024
We enjoyed snowboarding and skiing at Karuizawa Prince Hotel Ski Resort (Nagano, Japan) from February 22 to 23, 2024. The nearest station is Karuizawa. We left our luggage at Hotel Cypress Karuizawa, rented equipment in front of the station, and took a cab service to the ski resort. Group photo after lunch Walking around Kumoba Pond Old Karuizawa Ginza
UAV-based seagrass wrack orthophotos classification for estimating blue carbon
Research Overview When seagrass such as eelgrass flows out of seaweed beds, some of it is washed up and deposited on nearby beaches. This is called seagrass wrack. If it is utilized as a resource or managed well, it can be expected to contribute to blue carbon (carbon sequestered and stored by the marine ecosystem). Monitoring the annual occurrence of seagrass rack is the first step toward such management. In this study, we investigated a method to automatically classify seagrass rack from orthorectified images taken by an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) along the Futtsu Coast of Tokyo Bay. By using a low-pass filter for preprocessing and ISODATA as the classification […]
Presentation Award in the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences Section at the 2023 Congress of the Japan Geoscience Union
Wataru Nakamura, Ph.D. candidate (3rd-year), received the Outstanding Student Presentation Award in the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences Section at the 2023 Congress of the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU Meeting 2023). The title of the presentation was "Inorganic carbon cycle in mangrove soils and possibility for assimilation of outwelled mangrove carbon in seagrass and coral ecosystems." In the presentation, the carbon cycle among mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reef ecosystems was discussed using radiocarbon isotopes as a tracer. Congratulations!