 Realizing the
scientific, social, and political advantages of a detailed biological
survey of the islands of the Kuril Archipelago, curators and staff of the
University of Washington Burke Museum (UW), will join with Japanese
scientists, primarily from the Sapporo and Hakodate campuses of Hokkaido
University (HU), and Russian scientists, primarily from the Russian
Academy of Sciences, Far East Branch, Vladivostok (RAS), to conduct a
five-year program having the following objectives:
- Inventory existing collections of Kuril plants and animals at
the various institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in
Vladivostok, Magadan, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, and
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk;
- Survey the 17 major islands of the Kurils, and the southern tip
of Kamchatka, focusing on vascular plants, insects, spiders, freshwater
and terrestrial mollusks, freshwater fishes, and terrestrial
vertebrates;
- Sort, identify, and curate whole specimens and ethanol-fixed
tissue collections for future study;
- Develop a database of specimens and taxa for use in later
studies;
- Make the immediate results of the surveys--databases, written
information, as well as preserved collections--widely available as
quickly as possible to researchers around the world;
- Provide training, field experience, and research opportunities
for students and professional biologists of all three participating
institutions;
- Prepare keys, guides, and annotated checklists of the flora and
fauna of the Kuril Islands.
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