Testing the applicability of environmental DNA metabarcoding to landscape genetics.

Landscape genetics is a field dealing with local genetic differences and contributes to strategic conservation planning. Recently, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has proven useful not only for detecting species but also for assessing genetic diversity and genetic structure on a large scale such as in phylogeography. However, it remains unclear whether eDNA analysis also has sufficient power to perform the landscape genetics, which focuses on a local scale.

A strategic sampling design revealed the local genetic structure of cold-water fluvial sculpin: a focus on groundwater-dependent water temperature heterogeneity.

A key piece of information for ecosystem management is the relationship between the environment and population genetic structure. However, it is difficult to clearly quantify the effects of environmental factors on genetic differentiation because of spatial autocorrelation and analytical problems. In this study, we focused on stream ecosystems and the environmental heterogeneity caused by groundwater and constructed a sampling design in which geographic distance and environmental differences are not correlated.

Isolation and characterization of microsatellites from a cicada, Yezoterpnosia nigricosta (Hemiptera: Cicadidae), distributed in subarctic and cool temperate forests.

The cicada Yezoterpnosia nigricosta (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) is distributed in subarctic and cool temperate forests in Japan, China and the Russian Far East. Due to its limited and isolated distribution at higher altitudes in cool temperate forests on the main island of Japan, especially in the central and southern areas, this species is listed as a threatened or near-threatened species on the Red List of 12 prefectures in Japan. Moreover, there are concerns about the impacts of climate change on the species' distribution and population demography.

Occurrence of cardiovascular events after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster.

There are conflicting reports regarding the occurrence of cardiovascular events after a major earthquake. To understand the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on cardiovascular events, we retrospectively examined the clinical records prepared by emergency room physicians between 2009 and 2011 (n = 66,244), and compared the occurrence of these events between 2011 and 2009, and 2011 and 2010. There was a significant increase in the number of patients with cardiovascular events during the 3 week period after the earthquake in 2011 (n = 106) compared with that during the same period in 2009 (n = 72) or 2010 (n = 65) (P = 0.