The Kraternaya Bight, Ushishir, Kuril Archipelago.

Welcome to IKIP

The International Kuril Island Project is an international collaboration of American, Russian, and Japanese scientists to survey the plants, insects, spiders, freshwater and terrestrial mollusks, freshwater fishes, amphibians, and reptiles of the Kuril Archipelago. Participating institutions include the University of Washington (Fish Collection, Burke Museum, and Herbarium), the Russian Academy of Sciences, Far East Branch, and Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan.

IKIP was first conceived in September 1991 while Theodore W. Pietsch (University of Washington) was on a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellowship to work with colleagues at Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan. Subsequent discussions and planning with both Russian and Japanese colleagues eventually led in October 1993 to the submission of a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Environmental Biology, Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program. This proposal resulted in a one year "proof of concept" award, (DEB-9400821, 15 July 1994--30 June 1995) and a "trial" expedition to the southern Kuril Islands in the summer of 1994. The 1994 expedition was successful, and that November a proposal to survey the major islands of the entire Kuril Archipelago over five years was submitted to NSF, along with parallel submissions by Russian and Japanese colleagues to the Russian Academy of Sciences and JSPS, respectively. The proposals submitted in all three countries were successful, but NSF funds (DEB-9505031) will provide primary support for the project over its lifetime, 1 May 1995--30 April 2000.

The primary purpose of the IKIP web site is to provide easy access to project results and databases, both for participants and other interested scientists. We have also included contact information for all project participants. Graphical button bars are provided at the top and bottom of each page to aid navigation to each of the major sections of the IKIP site. For those using browsers without graphics support, the links provided by the button bars are: Proposal, Island Info, Results, Gallery, and Okhotskia.


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