NAKATSUKA Takeshi

Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

Research Department・Professor

My specializations are isotopic biogeochemistry and paleoclimatology. I have been continuously studying climate and environmental changes in Japan and Asia including the surrounding seas at Hokkaido University and Nagoya University. In recent years, my research has been focused on reconstructing climate changes in Japan during the last several thousand years on a yearly basis, using oxygen isotope ratios of tree rings, and conducting a comparative study with the history of human society. My research has also included application of inter-annual patterns of the oxygen isotope ratio to the dating of woods excavated from archaeological remains. In this project, I plan to expand this technique to the whole area of Northeast Asia and shed new light upon a direction of research on the history of the relationship between the climate and communities in the area through reconstruction of the paleoclimate and dating of excavated wooden materials.