Title: Top-down effect and bottom-up effect shaping a community
structure.
Supervisors: Dr. M. Higashi and Dr. N. Yamamura
1996-1998 Kyoto University
MSc Biology
Title: Male-female conflict in endosperm and its evolutionary
resolution.
Supervisors: Dr. M. Higashi
1992-1996 Kyoto University
BSc Plant Biology
Project: The theoretical study on the relative importance of
top-down and bottom-up effects in controlling herbivore populations.
This work is presented in 43th Annual Meeting of Ecological Society of
Japan (March 1996, Tokyo).
Supervisors: Dr. M. Higashi
1993-1996 Tokai Highschool
Research & Work Experience
2004- : Lecturer at Ryukoku University
2002 (May)-2003 (Oct): Guest Researcher at Netherlands Institute of
Ecology (The Netherlands)
2003 (Oct)-2004 (Jan): Guest Researcher at Cardiff University (Wales,
UK)
2001-2004: The Fellowships of Japanese Society for the Promotion of
Science for Young Scientists
Research
My reserch interest encompasses evolutionary biology, population
ecology and community ecology. Most studies are theoretical, carried
out with modelling approach. The major
research topics are:
Food-web structure and population
stability
Ecological theory often predicts a negative effect of food-web
complexity on population stability. Although this counterintuitive
prediction has catalyzed many attempts to explain the maintenance
mechanism of apparently complex food webs in nature, there are few
studies that predict a positive effect. Using a dynamic model
representing how population levels change over time, I have shown that
in
the presence of food-web flexibility arising from adaptive foraging
behaviour an increase in complexity stabilizes population stability
(Kondoh 2003 Science 299: 1388, Kondoh 2003 Science 301: 918c).
Human activity and its influence on
community structure and ecosystem processes
Habitat fragmentation often result in outbreaks of herbivorous
insects, which cause a massive loss of primary production. But, the
mechanism has been unclear. I constructed a dynamics model of
tri-trophic food chain with explicit space. With this model I presented
a hypothesis that this is attributable to higher
vulnerability of higher trophic levels to habitat losses arising in
spatially structured populations (Kondoh 2003 JTB 225: 453).
Maintenance mechanism of biodiversity
I presented a theory to unify the previously presented two
hypotheses as to biodiversity pattern, "intermediate disturbance
hypothesis" and "humped back hypothesis" (Kondoh 2001 Proc Roy Soc B
268: 269).
I have shown that a higher reproductive rate leads to higher
vulnerability to enemy attacks in spatially structured populations.
This gives a possible reasoning to the coexistence of multiple species
(Kondoh 2003 Am Nat 161: 299).
A herbivore feeding on nutrient-poor plants spends a longer
juvinile stage and thus more vulnerable to natural enemies. This
hypothesis is examined by a formal mathematical model (Kondoh &
Williams 2001 Oikos 93: 161).
Game theoretical approaches to
evolutionary theory
I and Dr. Higashi presented a hypothesis of how a reproductive
isolation mechanism arises as a result of an evolutionary resolution of
intragenomic conflict (Kondoh & Higashi 2002 Am Nat 156: 511).
I and Dr. Okuda, using a mathematical optimization model,
predicted a condition under which filial cannibalism is more likely to
be observed (Kondoh & Okuda 2002 Anim Behav 63: 227).
Evolution of diverse breeding system in insects explained
as a result of male-female coevolutionarily game (Ide & Kondoh 2000
Ecol Lett 3: 433, Kondoh & Ide 2003 Anim Behav 65: 1013).
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
M.
Kondoh
(2003) Foraging adaptation and the relationship between food-web
complexity and stability. Science
299: 1388-1391.
M.
Kondoh
(2003) High reproductive rates result
in high predation risks - a mechanism promoting the coexistence of
competing prey in spatially structured populations. The American
Naturalist 161: 299-309.
M.
Kondoh
(2001) Unifying the relationships of species richness to productivity
and disturbance. Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London. Series B
268: 269-271.
M.
Kondoh
and M. Higashi (2000) Reproductive isolation mechanism resulting from
resolution of intragenomic conflict. The
American Naturalist 156:
511-518.
Book Chapters
M.
Kondoh
(2005) Is biodiversity maintained by food-web complexity? -The
adaptive food-web hypothesis. In: Aquatic
Food Webs: an Ecosystem
Approach (Eds. A. Belgrano, U. Scharler, J. Dunne & B.
Ulanowicz)
Oxford University Press.
M.
Kondoh
(2005) Linking flexible food-web structure to population stability:
a theoretical consideration on adaptive food webs. In: Dynamic Food
Webs: Multispecies assemblages, ecosystem development, and
environmental change (Eds. P. C. de Ruiter, V. Wolters & J.
C.
Moore) Academic Press.
M.
Kondoh
(in press) Contact experience, alien-native interactions, and their
community consequences: a theoretical consideration. In: Conceptual
ecology and invasions biology: reciprocal approaches to nature
(Eds. M.
W. Cadotte, S. M. McMahon & T. Fukami) Academic Press.
Aug 2004 The 8th Miyadi Awards (Japanese Society of Ecology)
Funds
2005-2006: MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B (no. 17770022)
2004: Ryukoku University "Rikou Kikin" fund
2001-2003: Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows
1996-2000: LASSO Scholarship
Other activities
Editor of "Nihon Seitai Gakkai Si (Japanese Journal of Ecological
Society)" (2005-)
Editor of News Letter of Japanese Society for Mathematical
Biology (2004-)
Associated Researchers
Arndt Telschow (Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt Universität
zu Berlin)
Carlos J.
Melian (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis)
Ellen van Donk
(Netherlands
Institute of Ecology): The host researcher at Netherlands Institute of
Ecology (The Netherlands) in 2002.
HIGASHI Masahiko: My supervisor in the BSc,
MSc and PhD courses in Kyoto University. He is the collaborator of the
research on evolution of genomic imprinting, which was published in
American Naturalist (2000).
Hefin
Jones (Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff
University): The host researcher at Cardiff Universityy (Wales, UK) in
2001-2002.
IDE
Jun-Ya (Kyoto University): The collaborator on the theoretical
reserach on insect breeding system and mating behaviour. This work
resulted in two papers in Ecology Letters (2000) and Animal Behaviour
2003.
KAWATA
Masakado (Tohoku University, Japan): The collaborator on the IBM
version of adaptive food web.
MIKI
Takeshi (Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University): The
collaborator on the theoretical study on how material recysling
influences plant community structure. This was published as a paper in
Ecology Letters
(2002).
OKUDA
Noboru (Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University): The
collaborator on the theoretical
study as to filial cannibalism of mouth brooding fish. This resulted in
a paper in Animal Behaviour (2002).
YAMAGUCHI Wakako (Tohoku University, Japan): The collaborator on the
IBM version of adaptive food web.
YAMAMURA Norio
(Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University): A supervisor of my
Project in my PhD
courses in Kyoto University.
