About

Emi Ito is a Professor and Director of the Limnological Research Center within the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Her current research focuses on modeling past climate, especially moisture balance, using sediment records from extant and ancient lakes. She aims to understand processes that connect climate to proxy records preserved in lake sediments, including how lakes perceive climate influences such as groundwater effects on hydrological and geochemical signatures, and the impact of habitat and timing on the geochemistry of lake organisms like ostracodes. Her work involves collaborative efforts with experts in hydrogeology, sediment transport, regional climate modeling, and paleoecology to reconstruct past environmental conditions and processes. Recent interests include sediment transport within lakes, exemplified by her NSF project in Southern Patagonia, and a long-term drilling project on Pliocene lakes of Western North America, which supported large lakes in arid regions during a warmer period. Emi Ito holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and is actively involved in research projects, publications, and scientific societies related to geosciences and climate history.

Research topics

• Biology
• Microbiology
• Ecology
• Stereochemistry
• Biochemistry
• Genetics
• Chemistry
• Geography

Selected publications

• 交換留学生の漢字学習の動機付け強化を目標の一つとした日本事情クラスの実践報告 : 個々のテーマでつくるMY KANJI LIST

  Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · 2025-01-16

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• [A Case of Multiple Liver Metastases from Breast Cancer Treated with Sacituzumab Govitecan Using a Scalp Cooling System].

  PubMed · 2025-12-01

  article

  The patient was a 51-year-old woman who underwent surgery for bilateral breast cancer in 2021. In 2023, 2 years after surgery, multiple liver metastases were detected. Although she was treated with paclitaxel(PTX)plus bevacizumab(Bev), followed by pembrolizumab(Pemb)in combination with carboplatin(CBDCA)and gemcitabine(GEM), the liver metastases showed progressive disease. Sacituzumab govitecan was initiated as a third-line therapy in December 2024. At that time, a scalp cooling system was used, resulting in hair loss equivalent to CTCAE Grade 1. The patient did not require a wig, and the scalp cooling system demonstrated a favorable hair preservation effect. Further case accumulation is necessary to evaluate the hair loss prevention effect of the scalp cooling system during sacituzumab govitecan administration.

  Publisher

• 岩手県高松の池から採集されたタイホクケンミジンコ Thermocyclops taihokuensis Harada, 1931 （カイアシ綱，キクロプス目，キクロプス科）

  Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · 2024-12-01

  articleOpen access
  Publisher

• The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces

  Journal of Paleolimnology · 2024-10-26

  articleOpen access

  The Sea of Galilee is a unique large freshwater or slightly oligohaline natural lake in the Levant. Therefore, it represents an important aquatic habitat in the region that also provides invaluable ecosystem services for the local communities. To improve our knowledge of the lake’s ecosystem and the use of disarticulated ostracod valves and preserved carapaces, micro-crustacean remains commonly used in palaeolimnology and palaeoceanography, as proxies for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and to examine the post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains, 68 surface-sediment samples were collected from the lake bottom in 2012 and analysed for the ostracod assemblages. Both, the noded and smooth, forms of Cyprideis torosa dominate in the Sea of Galilee, with the former more abundant than the latter. Relatively abundant and found at half of the 68 sampling locations or more, are also Ilyocypris hartmanni, I. cf. nitida, Darwinula stevensoni and Neglecandona angulata. In addition, ten less abundant ostracod taxa were recorded in the lake. Of all 15 taxa recorded in our study, ten were also recorded in a study of the Sea of Galilee’s ostracod fauna conducted already in the 1960s. The newly recorded five taxa are relatively rare, and they were mostly found in the region of the Jordan River delta or near the southeastern shore of the lake which were not included in the survey of the 1960s. Thus, there is no evidence for a significant change in the ostracod fauna of the lake over the last half-century. In comparison to the ostracod assemblage from a late Pleistocene archaeological excavation site at the southwestern margin of the lake, the assemblage from the recent survey is slightly less diverse, probably because of the long duration of ca. 5000 years integrated by the sedimentary section of the archaeological site and also due to nearby freshwater inflows from which valves and carapaces were probably washed to the site’s location. Our study also shows that ostracod valves and carapaces are typically relatively abundant in most of the surface-sediment samples collected from locations at 18 m or shallower. In contrast, very few valves and carapaces were recorded at depths greater than 18 m, which is a zone affected by seasonal anoxia in the Sea of Galilee. These few ostracod remains were apparently transported by currents and waves to the central, deeper part of the lake, but their low number shows that such post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains is insignificant in the deeper part of the lake. Thus, our study provides support for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions based on ostracod records from single sediment cores obtained from depths unaffected by post-mortem transport and seasonal or permanent anoxia.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Late Quaternary glacial maxima in southern Patagonia: insights from the Lago Argentino glacier lobe

  Climate of the past · 2024-08-28 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract. Determining the timing and extent of Quaternary glaciations around the globe is critical to understanding the drivers behind climate change and glacier fluctuations. Evidence from the southern mid-latitudes indicates that local glacial maxima preceded the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), implying that feedbacks in the climate system or ice dynamics played a role beyond the underlying orbital forcings. To shed light on these processes, we investigated the glacial landforms shaped and deposited by the Lago Argentino glacier (50° S), an outlet lobe of the former Patagonian Ice Sheet, in southern Argentina. We mapped geomorphological features on the landscape and dated moraine boulders and outwash sediments using 10Be cosmogenic nuclides and feldspar infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) to constrain the chronology of glacial advance and retreat. We report that the Lago Argentino glacier lobe reached more extensive limits prior to the global LGM, advancing during the middle to late Pleistocene between 243–132 ka and during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3), culminating at 44.5 ± 8.0 and at 36.6 ± 1.0 ka. Our results indicate that the most extensive advance of the last glacial cycle occurred during MIS 3, and we hypothesize that this was a result of longer and colder winters, as well as increased precipitation delivered by a latitudinal migration of the Southern Westerly Winds belt, highlighting the role of local and regional climate feedbacks in modulating ice mass changes in the southern mid-latitudes.

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary material to "Late Quaternary glacial maxima in Southern Patagonia: insights from the Lago Argentino glacier lobe"

  2024-03-26

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Do ice-dam rupture events leave a distinctive signature in proglacial lake sediments?

  Quaternary Research · 2024-12-27

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Lake sediment provides a valuable record of past environmental change. However, the controls on sedimentation in proglacial lakes and their relation to glacier retreat remain poorly understood. In this study we analyze glaciolacustrine sediment production and deposition in Canal de los Témpanos, Lago Argentino, Argentine Patagonia. We associate temporal changes in the sedimentologic and geochemical characteristics analyzed from Lago Argentino cores with Late Holocene fluctuations of the Perito Moreno and Ameghino glaciers. We show that the dominant sediment source at our study site switched from Ameghino to Perito Moreno Glacier after the recession of Ameghino Glacier and the formation of the marginal ice-contact lake into which it currently calves. Spectacular ice-dam rupture events generated by Perito Moreno Glacier redistribute large volumes of water through the lake system but do not leave a significant sedimentary signature. Our results demonstrate that a detailed analysis of sedimentologic, petrophysical, and geochemical changes in lake cores can provide insight into regional glacial dynamics and sedimentary processes even in complex systems with multiple competing glacial sources and that changing glacier geometries during retreat can provide insights into the provenience of the sediments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Late Quaternary glacial maxima in Southern Patagonia: insights from the Lago Argentino glacier lobe

  2024-03-26 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract. Determining the timing and extent of Quaternary glaciations around the globe is critical to understanding the drivers behind climate change and glacier fluctuations. Despite synchronous ice-volume and extent change across hemispheres, evidence from the southern mid-latitudes indicates that local glacial maxima occurred earlier in the glacial cycle, preceding the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), implying that feedbacks in the climate system or ice dynamics played a role beyond the underlying orbital parameters. To shed light on these processes, we investigated the glacial landforms shaped by the Lago Argentino glacier (50° S), an outlet lobe of the former Patagonian Ice Sheet in southern Argentina, during the last two glacial cycles. We mapped geomorphological features on the landscape and dated moraine boulders and outwash sediments using 10Be cosmogenic nuclides and feldspar infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) to constrain the chronology of glacial advance and retreat. We, therefore, provide the first published age constraints on the middle-to-late Pleistocene glaciations at Lago Argentino, and report that this outlet lobe expanded during Marine Isotope Stage 6, at 153.0 ± 14.7 ka, and during Marine Isotope Stage 3, culminating at 44.5 ± 8.0 ka and at 36.6 ± 1.0 ka. Our results indicate that the most recent was its most extensive advance during the last glacial period, and hypothesize that this was a result of longer and colder winters, as well as increased precipitation delivered by a northward migration of the Southern Westerly Winds belt, highlighting the role of local and regional climate feedbacks in driving ice mass changes in the southern mid-latitudes.

  PublisherDOI

• The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces

  Research Square · 2024-06-03

  preprintOpen access

  <title>Abstract</title> The Sea of Galilee is the one and only large freshwater or slightly oligohaline natural lake in the Levant, and it therefore represents an important aquatic habitat in the region that also provides invaluable ecosystem services for the local communities. To improve our knowledge of the lake’s ecosystem and the use of disarticulated ostracod valves and preserved carapaces, micro-crustacean remains commonly used in palaeolimnology and palaeoceanography, as proxies for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and to examine the post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains, 68 surface-sediment samples were collected from the lake floor in 2012 and analysed for the ostracod assemblages. Both, the noded and smooth, forms of <italic>Cyprideis torosa</italic> dominate in the Sea of Galilee, with the former more abundant than the latter. Relatively abundant and found at half of the 68 sampling locations or more, are also <italic>Ilyocypris hartmanni</italic>, <italic>I</italic>. cf. <italic>nitida</italic>, <italic>Darwinula stevensoni</italic> and <italic>Neglecandona angulata</italic>. In addition, ten less abundant ostracod taxa were recorded in the lake. Of all 15 taxa recorded in our study, ten were apparently also recorded in a study of the Sea of Galilee’s ostracod fauna conducted already in the 1960s. The newly recorded five taxa are relatively rare, and they were mostly found in the region of the Jordan River delta or near the southeastern shore of the lake which were not included in the survey of the 1960s. Thus, there is no evidence for a significant change in the ostracod fauna of the lake over the last half-century. In comparison to the ostracod assemblage from a late Pleistocene archaeological excavation site at the southwestern margin of the lake, the assemblage from the recent survey is slightly less diverse, probably as a result of the long duration of ca. 5000 years integrated by the sedimentary section of the archaeological site and also due to nearby freshwater inflows from which valves and carapaces were probably washed to the site’s location. Our study also shows that ostracod valves and carapaces are typically relatively abundant in most of the surface-sediment samples collected from locations at 18 m or shallower. In contrast, very few valves and carapaces were recorded at depths greater than 18 m, which is a zone affected by seasonal anoxia in the Sea of Galilee. These few ostracod remains were apparently transported by currents and waves to the central, deeper part of the lake, but their low number shows that such post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains is insignificant in the deeper part of the lake. Thus, our study provides support for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions based on ostracod records from single sediment cores obtained from depths unaffected by post-mortem transport and seasonal or permanent anoxia.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Basic Study for Predicting Dysphagia in Panoramic X-ray Images Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Part 2: Analysis of the Position of the Hyoid Bone on Panoramic Radiographs

  Eng—Advances in Engineering · 2023-10-10 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Oral frailty is associated with systemic frailty. The vertical position of the hyoid bone is important when considering the risk of dysphagia. However, dentists usually do not focus on this position. Purpose: To create an AI model for detection of the position of the vertical hyoid bone. Methods: In this study, 1830 hyoid bone images from 915 panoramic radiographs were used for AI learning. The position of the hyoid bone was classified into six types (Types 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) based on the same criteria as in our previous study. Plan 1 learned all types. In Plan 2, the five types other than Type 0 were learned. To reduce the number of groupings, three classes were formed using combinations of two types in each class. Plan 3 was used for learning all three classes, and Plan 4 was used for learning the two classes other than Class A (Types 0 and 1). Precision, recall, f-values, accuracy, and areas under the precision–recall curves (PR-AUCs) were calculated and comparatively evaluated. Results: Plan 4 showed the highest accuracy and PR-AUC values, of 0.93 and 0.97, respectively. Conclusions: By reducing the number of classes and not learning cases in which the anatomical structure was partially invisible, the vertical hyoid bone was correctly detected.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Facility Support: National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore)

  NSF · $1.5M · 2010–2016

• Collaborative Research: Testing Potential of Paired Lakes on the NE Tibetan Plateau for Studying Interaction Between Hydrochemical Evolution and Environmental Change

  NSF · $49k · 2005–2008

• Fluid Flow, Mass Transfer and their Relation to Cooling History of the Cuillin Complex, Isle of Skye, NW Scotland

  NSF · $83k · 1990–1993

• Collaborative Project: Track 2: Manoomin, investigating the past, present, and future conditions of wild rice lakes on the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation

  NSF · $829k · 2009–2015

• Walking in Two Worlds: Engaging the Community and Future Native American Scientists in Environmental Science and Managing Natural Resources on Tribal Lands

  NSF · $297k · 2014–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Matías Romero

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  36 shared

• Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries

  University of Cambridge

  32 shared

• Daniel R. Engstrom

  Science Museum of Minnesota

  28 shared

• Mark D. Shapley

  Utah State University

  23 shared

• Minoru Suzuki

  Natural History Museum and Institute

  22 shared

• Feng Sheng Hu

  Guizhou Provincial Meteorological Bureau

  20 shared

• B. Brandon Curry

  University of New Mexico

  20 shared

• Andrew D. Wickert

  University of Minnesota

  19 shared

Education

• PhD, Geophysical Science

  University of Chicago

  1979

Awards & honors

• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Geophysical Union
• American Quaternary Association
• Geological Society of America
• Geochemical Society