New Japan volcano island 'natural lab' for life
Scientists observing 'lab for life' as Mother Nature begins to colonise land
A brand new island emerging off the coast of Japan offers scientists a rare opportunity to study how life begins to colonise barren land - helped by rotting bird poo and hatchling vomit.
Researchers say bird waste will be the secret ingredient to kick start Mother Nature's grand experiment on what is a still active volcano that only poked its head above the waves in November 2013.
That speck of land, some 1,000km south of Tokyo, has grown to engulf its once larger neighbour, Nishinoshima, a part of Japan's Ogasawara island chain known for the wealth and variety of its ecosystem.
The new Nishinoshima, a respectable 2.46 sq km, the Japan Coast Guard said in February - roughly the size of 345 football pitches - is currently almost all bare rock, formed from cooling lava.
But scientists say it will one day be humming with plant - and possibly animal - life, as nature moves in to what is being called a "natural laboratory" on one of the latest bits of real estate in the Pacific Ocean.
"We biologists are very much focusing on the new island because we'll be able to observe the starting point of evolutionary processes," said Naoki Kachi, professor and leader of Tokyo Metropolitan University's Ogasawara Research Committee.