Thriving ecosystems for future generations
Akinori Nishide: Today, I’d like to discuss the relationship between biodiversity and our daily lives and culture. First, could you tell us about evolutionary ecology, your field of expertise?
Dr. Will Pearse: Evolutionary ecology is a field that seeks to understand how species have evolved through their interactions with each other and their environment. I’m building AI models of evolutionary processes over millions of years and I hope to better understand ecosystem functions. The goal is to ensure that humanity can safely utilize ecosystems while maintaining biodiversity, so that future generations can also benefit from thriving ecosystems.
Paul Taylor: Hitachi European R&D Centre has been collaborating with ICL on cross-disciplinary research covering various topics related to sustainability and the Earth. One such project was building one of the world’s largest databases on biodiversity and ecosystem functions, which we worked on with Dr. Pearse.
Dr. Pearse: The database currently contains over 240,000 data points that tell us how factors such as the number of species in specific ecosystems affect their services for humans. These services include pulling carbon out of the atmosphere to fight climate change, protecting us from floods and providing us with pollinators so that our food grows better.
Yoshitaka Morimoto: I hear that you issued a policy briefing note on biodiversity and ecosystem functions based on these findings.
Dr. Pearse: Yes, we released a recommendation for policymakers emphasizing “grow diverse ecosystems, don’t just plant trees.”
Dr. Will Pearse of Imperial College London explains the policy briefing note on biodiversity and ecosystem functions.
Japanese cherry blossoms, British seasonal traditions
Nishide: The ICL briefing note also mentions forest protection, observing that plants can attract people and encourage them to participate in forest conservation activities. With this in mind, I’d like to discuss “sakura (cherry blossoms),” which are extremely important to Japanese people. Dr. Morimoto, you have extensive international experience. Do you see differences in the perception of cherry blossoms across countries?
Morimoto: I have lived in the United States, France and the United Kingdom, and definitely notice cultural differences. While cherry blossoms are deeply intertwined with Japanese culture, in America, there isn’t such a strong cultural connection — with the exception of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. that originated from Japan’s gift of cherry trees to America in 1912 as a token of friendship, this major event has made cherry blossoms a symbol of friendship between the two nations.
As for France and the U.K., Dr. Pearse and Dr. Taylor would know better, but while you can see people enjoying picnics under cherry trees in parks in spring, the blossoms don’t draw crowds like “Hanami (cherry blossom viewing)” in Japan.
Taylor: My perception is that cherry blossoms in Japan seem to be a social event. I hear people even take time off work to view them.
Dr. Pearse: That social angle is interesting. We have May Day celebrations, which were quite grand when we were more connected to agriculture in the U.K. It was a festival to celebrate the beginning of farm work and to pray for a bountiful harvest, though it wasn’t linked to a particular species like Japan’s cherry blossoms.
Taylor: In terms of specific species, the cuckoo comes to mind. British people traditionally associated the sound of the cuckoo with the arrival of spring. Another symbolic flower for me is the daffodil. When these yellow flowers burst through the ground after a hard winter, you feel great. It brings joy to learn that warmer weather is on the way. However, living in urban areas like London, opportunities to hear cuckoos or see daffodils might be more limited.
Dr. Yoshitaka Morimoto of Hitachi Europe (left) and Dr. Paul Taylor of Hitachi talk about the relationship between cherry blossoms and culture.
Cherry blossoms protect us from floods
Nishide: Cherry blossoms are more than just beautiful. In Tokyo, cherry trees were planted along riverbank embankments about 300 years ago. When the cherry blossoms bloom, their beauty attracts people to these embankments. The footsteps of numerous cherry blossom viewers helped compact and strengthen these embankments.
Morimoto: It’s as if the visitors were acting as volunteer civil engineers.
Nishide: Exactly. That’s precisely why cherry trees were planted along the rivers. And these embankments have protected us from floods ever since.
Dr. Pearse: That’s fascinating! I love technology, but can you imagine if I read in a new scientific journal about “a newly invented flood control system that would last at least 100 years, would reproduce when it wore out or was damaged, and would assemble itself from materials it found around it”? I would think, “What?! Did someone create this with nanotechnology or something?” No, it’s just cherry trees. It’s an extraordinary example of ecosystem services.
Nishide: That’s one aspect of cherry trees. Are there similar examples in the U.K.?
Dr. Pearse: In the U.K., too, we’ve had horrible floods that have devastated lives and killed people throughout history. Wetlands are amazing at protecting us from floods. In wetlands, the reeds put down roots in the mud and slow down the flow of rivers, allowing them to process more water and preventing it from spreading too far. That way wetland reeds grow to match the landscape and topography to maximize their own growth, and in so doing, minimize the likelihood of flooding. They are absolutely amazing ecosystem engineers, another remarkable ecosystem service. Plus, wetlands also serve as habitats for birds.
Taylor: Beavers used to help create wetlands by building dams. In fact, wild beavers are now being reintroduced in Britain.
In the U.K., wetlands serve as natural flood defenses.
New ecosystems suitable for modern times
Taylor: Speaking of ecosystem services, hedgerows around British farmland are another good example.
Dr. Pearse: Indeed. Birds can nest in hedgerows. These birds then fly out to the fields, while insects living in the hedgerows and fields move back and forth, pollinating plants. Since hedgerows run along the edges of fields, they effectively connect the fields, serving as natural pathways.
Nishide: So the agricultural style helps small creatures move along the hedgerows, right?
Dr. Pearse: Exactly. We call these hedgerows “corridors.” As you pointed out, they allow creatures to migrate to other habitats, so if there’s a drought or fire in one habitat, they can relocate and settle elsewhere, grow there and help regenerate forests. These “corridors” help habitats function better and keep the entire landscape vibrant.
Taylor: However, many hedgerows have been removed under the pretext of agricultural efficiency.
Dr. Pearse: It’s a serious problem. Hedgerows were homes to pollinating insects and birds that eat pests, but we lost these benefits just to make fields slightly larger.
Taylor: It seems that the ecosystem services humans removed are now needed again.
Dr. Pearse: People who value nature this way might be seen as “Luddites” (*1), but I’m not trying to destroy progress and return to some imagined beautiful past. What we’re suggesting in our brief note is that we want a new type of nature. In ecology, there’s a concept called “novel ecosystems” (*2). It’s about accepting that the world is changing and acknowledging that ecosystems have actually changed over time. Species migrate, some have gone extinct, while new ones have been created.
What you can do instead is you can be grown-ups. You can say things are changing. What do we need and what do we want, and how can we get that sustainably? And sustainably means without having to put in lots of effort, and in a way that we can keep doing it. This word sustainability really just means staying alive, right? And that’s all we really need to do. And so, I say that with hedgerows, because, as a spoiler, I’d actually prefer that instead of hedgerows, speaking personally, we had more forests.
Therefore, we don’t need to return to how things were 100, 200 or 500 years ago. While recognizing that ecosystems change with time, we need to decide what’s appropriate for us now. Depending on the location, it might be hedgerows, wetlands or perhaps even a forest in the middle of a city.
(*1) Luddite: People who resisted the Industrial Revolution in Britain by destroying machinery
(*2) Novel ecosystems: Ecosystems comprising different species and physical environments that have been influenced by human activity
The researchers, from left, Akinori Nishide, Dr. Will Pearse, Paul Taylor and Yoshitaka Morimoto, arrive for their round-table discussion at Imperial College London.
Vol. 2 will focus on “Evolution theory and biodiversity.” Dr. Pearse’s research has confirmed that as average temperatures rise due to climate change, flowering times, including those of cherry blossoms, are occurring earlier. They will examine changes in cherry blossom flowering times from an evolutionary perspective.
(In collaboration with Imperial College London)
Related Link
Profile
Will Pearse, PhD
Reader in Evolutionary Ecology,
Imperial College London
Dr. Pearse is a Reader in Evolutionary Ecology at Imperial College London, where his lab develops new tools to better measure and forecast biodiversity and human health to help drive societal change. His research focuses on developing new computational methods to understand how species' evolutionary history drives their present-day interactions. He enjoys working with companies (such as Hitachi) and charities (such as the EDGE of Extinction program) to apply insights from his lab's research and so support nature and human-wellbeing.
Paul Taylor, PhD
Laboratory Manager,
Sustainability,
European Research and Development, Hitachi
Dr. Taylor studied environmental science and received his PhD for developing statistical models to assess the quality of measurement in environmental surveys and associated risks from misclassification error. His subsequent career as a sustainability specialist for corporates has spanned various industry sectors and sustainability topics, including carbon accounting for products and supply chains, responsible sourcing for metals used in electric vehicles and innovation in the mining sector. His role for Hitachi research and development focuses on innovating future technologies in sustainability, such as reducing CO2 emissions, improving the lifecycle impacts of batteries or protecting and utilizing nature for climate adaptation.
Akinori Nishide, PhD
Chief Researcher,
European Research & Development Centre,
Hitachi Europe, Ltd.
Dr. Nishide is a chief researcher at Hitachi Europe, Ltd., focusing on developing monitoring, reporting, verifying metrics on biodiversity and models to evaluate an economic value of biological ecosystem as a complex system. He has studied condensed matter physics and has joined the R&D of Hitachi, Ltd. in 2010, then, received his PhD for studying the effect of the quasiparticle on the electric state in the thermoelectric material. On the occasion of studying at the Max Planck institute in 2019, he has started the study on the complex system.
Yoshitaka Morimoto, Ph.D.
Deputy Lab Manager of Sustainability Laboratory,
European Research & Development Centre,
Hitachi Europe, Ltd.
Dr. Morimoto joined the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. in 2011 after completing his PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Since then, he has been involved in the R&D of optical measurement techniques, such as defect detection for 2.5-D semiconductor stacking. After completing his MBA, he joined ERD as an expatriate. His current role focuses on customer co-creation for hydrogen technology to decarbonize the gas transmission and distribution sectors.
