Introduction of the project

The Ariake Sea Research Project was started in FY2004 as a 3-year inter-faculty project funded by the university president. The aims of the project are to solve the environmental problems in the Ariake Sea and to undertake various efforts to restore the productivity of the Ariake Sea, such as fishery production. Since FY2005, this interdisciplinary research project has formally been funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as a 5-year project. Three assistant professors, two lecturers and two postdoctoral researchers were newly employed for this project in FY2005. These newly employed staffs and other researchers belonging to the existing faculties and institutes of the university form the project team. The project consists of the following six research divisions;

(1) Research Division of Sediment and Material Transport,
(2) Research Division of Environmental Science and Technology of Tidal Flat and Sediment,
(3) Research Division of Environmental Modeling,
(4) Research Division of Microbial Technology,
(5) Research Division of Marine & Food-Borne Infection, and
(6) Research Division of Regional Culture and Economy.

Closely related divisions are grouped together to form three major research groups (Core Researches) as follows;

Core Research 1 deals with the "Material Cycling in Mudflat-Offshore System", which consists of Research Division (1), (2) and (3),
Core Research 2 deals with the "Bio & Life Science", which consists of Research Division (4) and (5), and
Core Research 3 deals with "Regional Culture and Economy", which is same as Research Division (6).

The project is expected to solve the complex environmental problems of the Ariake Sea by integrating research findings of the various fields of studies.