We consider that water security, food security and environmental security are fundamental to the sustainability of human society in a changing world. In this project, we hypothesize that environmental traceability is a key concept in solving environmental issues for various stakeholders. For example, one certainly refuses to drink well water if it is obvious that the water comes from polluted drainage. Environmental traceability is an extension of the metaphor. However, it is usual that cause-and-effect relationships or even correlations are unclear. Stable isotope ratios of elements, together with the concentrations of elements, can trace a matter flow, the environmental condition of sites, ecosystem structure and food products. Spatio-temporal variation of multiple isotope ratios can be used for studying the earth systems from local to global point of view. The information may serve as a key for local people to consider water security, food security and environmental security, which are fundamental for the sustainability of human society, in terms of global viewpoint. Multi-isotope approach has successfully been applied to many previous projects in RIHN. Furthermore, the fact that RIHN is equipped with advanced isotope ratio mass spectrometers and elemental analysis systems confirms the advantage of adopting the approach and developing a new type of application of isotope tools for transdisciplinary approach.

   How to use the environmental traceability concept is a methodology that we seek to establish in this study. However, how to use the methodology in the transdisciplinary point of view is not well studied so far, and we hypothesize the process should be different among the stakeholders, especially “who” considered the approach is applicable to the environmental issue.  “Multi-Isoscapes” (use of multiple elements and multiple isotope ratios, and GIS based mapping technique), interview, workshop and questionnaire are methods for adopting environmental traceability in a given environmental issue.

   In this project, we test if the environmental traceability methodology is valid in environmental studies, by conducting the two researches, I) effectiveness of the environmental traceability concept, and II) applicability to the food traceability. For the research I), we ask what are effective points of the methodology to solve environmental problems using a survey by questionnaire and a workshop among stakeholders. For the research II), we test if the “environmental traceability” authentication by multi-isotope methods are more effective in communicating production conditions and building trust. 

I) effectiveness of the environmental traceability concept

・The Lake Biwa and the watershed, Shiga. Researches in the Yasu River watershed and local areas (e.g. Kosaji) are being conducted in collaboration with the e-REC project. We have identified the origin of phosphate in Yasu river using oxygen isotope analysis of phosphate in river. We held a symposium in December 2019 and conducted survey by questionnaire to clarify the residents’ validity of the environmental traceability methodology. 

・RHIN has collaborated with Ono City for groundwater survey since 2013, and the research results have already been included in the current “Basic Plan for groundwater management” and will be included in the next “Basic Plan for watershed management” in 2021. Based on this collaboration, Ono City opened the research museum and laboratory on 22 March 2020 to share scientific knowledge with the society.

 

Results of questionnaire survey

・The findings obtained from questionnaire surveys in Oshino Village in Yamanashi, Chikusa river watershed in Hyogo, Otsuchi Town in Iwate, and Saijo City in Ehime are:

1) The information obtained from environmental traceability methodology was highly evaluated by the residents and this result suggests the requirement of scientific investigation using the methodology by the residents.

2) The information obtained from environmental traceability methodology was highly required for solving environmental issues, although the degree of necessity differed among various environmental information at each study site.

3) The type of stakeholder which highly evaluated the information obtained from environmental traceability methodology were: 1) people who are generally involved in the object of conservation (groundwater or river depending on the study site), 2) people who have high concern about the information obtained from environmental traceability methodology, and 3) people who showed high level of understanding about the explanation of environmental traceability methodology in the symposium at each study site.

 

Workshops 

  To know the validity of the environmental traceability methodology for the municipal officers and project-related researchers other than isotope scientist, we held several workshops to hear the “strengths” of the methodology. 

 

II) applicability to the food traceability 

  Food labels provide information to consumers. How do consumers evaluate different sources of providing information on labels? We made a web-based questionnaire online survey (N=10,000) of consumers in Japan, the USA, Germany, China and Thailand. We selected four food items, which were previously detected false labeling by isotopic method. We set the sources of label information assured by farmer’s face, by government, by the producer association, by the experts (here, we include isotopic method), or by consumers’ reputation. Results showed that the expert labels based on scientific analysis were highly trusted regardless of food type or country, and the higher trust of expert labels was partly explained by trust in expert as food information source. This result suggests that expert labels might play an important role as trusted sources of information in the global food system. This study got the “Best Poster Award” in ISO-FOOD symposium held in Slovenia, and the study was published in the journal “Food and Chemical Toxicology” (Rupprecht et al. 2020).

 

III) Establish an internet website to serve as a platform that shares and develops the environmental traceability methodology

  With the cooperation of Open Team Science Core-project, we are establishing an internet website to serve as a platform that shares and develops the environmental traceability methodology. As a transdisciplinary context, we use the results obtained from the questionnaire and workshops, and all the finding of Laboratory and Analysis Division, including the cooperative research on “Environmental Isotope Study”. The website will continue to connect providers of the environmental traceability methodology with potential users. The web site is shown below.

https://www.environmentalisotope.jp

  The purpose of the Post-Core Project “Applied research platform based on environmental traceability”, which is the follow-up to this core project, is to improve and reconstruct environmental traceability methodology together with new users by using the website as a platform. The website connects researchers who can provide technologies related to environmental traceability methodology with researchers who want to use the methodology, and stakeholders including the government and citizens. We hope to build a new function of the inter-university research institutions and propose a core method of utilizing the environmental traceability methodology.