Project Report

Overseas Fellowship Program Participant：FY2023 First Call Short-Term Program
Moe Murakami (Hokkaido University)

I had the opportunity to go to Finland to participate in an international conference and sampling.

The International Boreal Forest Research Association Conference (IBFRA 2023, August 24th-31st 2023) was held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Various research related to the boreal forest was presented at the conference. I have been researching forest fires, so I gave a poster presentation entitled “Changes in flammability depending on how fallen leaves mixed or layered.” During the presentation, several researchers were interested in my poster. I was very nervous about explaining in English, but I was very grateful that most of the researchers spoke in easy English. The questions they asked me were all very pertinent, and I realized the difficulty of telling the points of the study for those who were hearing about it for the first time. I have decided that in the future I will put more effort into studying English, as well as improve my poster design and the way I represent my results.

From the 1st to the 4th of September, we conducted tree sampling in a research forest owned by the University of Helsinki. I assisted my supervisor, Associate Professor Makoto Kobayashi, in the sampling. We were able to collect samples from the trunks and roots of 30 trees. Sampling was conducted in a coniferous forest dominated by European spruce and covered underfoot with moss and lichens such as reindeer lichen. The landscape formed by the mosaic of red bark of the tree stems and green moss was beautiful and different from the forests I often visit in Hokkaido.

In boreal forests, there is a growing concern about forest fires due to climate change and global warming. Learning about the ecological value of boreal forests at the conference and experiencing beautiful forests overseas has inspired me to pursue my current research.