U.S. - Japan Joint Seminar: Kuril Island Biodiversity; Sapporo, Japan, May 2001

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0087509PietschThis award supports the participation of American scientists in a U.S.-Japan seminar on biodiversity of the Kuril Island, to be held in Sapporo, Japan from May 18-22, 2001. The co-organizers are professor Theodore Pietsch of the University of Washington and Professor Hideki Takahashi of the Hokkaido University in Japan. The islands of the Kuril Archipelago form the eastern boundary of the Okhotsk Sea and a bridge between Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, and the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka. They are a natural laboratory for investigations into the origin, subsequent evolution, and long-term maintenance of insular populations. This seminar is based on the results of research in this area to date. The project is also known as the "International Kuril Island project" (IKIP). The Seminar will consist of the following topics: 1) description of the project and history of the biological investigations; 2) geological history and environmental change on the Kuril Islands and present-day physical, geographic, climatic, and ecological conditions; 3) biodiversity of the fungi, lichens, mosses, liverworts and plants; 4) biodiversity of the insects and spiders; 5) biodiversity of the mollusks; 6) biodivedrsity of the fishes and terrestrial vertebrates; 7) analysis and synthesis, distributional patterns and biogeography, dispersal and vicariance; 8) future plans and new directions. The participants will also discuss future collaborations. Two areas of particular significance are 1) continued work on the biodiversity of the Russian Far East and 2) initiation of new investigations in archaeology, paleobiology and cultural anthropology of the Kuril Archipelago. Seminar organizers have made a special effort to involve younger researchers as both participants and observers. The exchange of ideas and data with Japanese experts in this field will enable U.S. participants to advance their own work, and will set the stage for future collaborative projects. Dissemination of information on the seminar will be available at (http://artedi.fish.washington.edu/ikip/home.html).