JAMSTEC > Research Institute for Global Change (RIGC) > Marine Biodiversity and Environmental Assessment Research Center (BioEnv)

D-ARK(Deep-sea Archaic Refugia in Karst)

Limelight on limestone caves: refugia for relict fauna?

Limestone caves form a unique environment isolated from the outside world, and many relict species called "living fossils" have been reported from limestone caves on land, freshwater, and shallow ocean ecosystems. Deepsea limestone caves may also be valuable habitats for relict species, no research has been conducted on deep-sea ecosystems to date.
This research ( D-ARK : Deep-sea Archaic Refugia in Karst ) will develop equipment for cave research, explore the sea area around the Daito Islands and clarify biodiversity including relict species in the caves.

Principal investigator of D-ARK
Yoshihiro FUJIWARA

2024/12/18
Flabelligena daitoensis: the first new species from D-ARK
2024/03/29
Inspection of Minami Daito Island.
2024/03/29
We have opened our homepage.
2024/02/01
Recruitment of Research assistant.
2024/01/05
Recruitment of Postdoctoral Researcher.
2023/12/01
We were adopted for Ocean Shot.
This project is supported by the Ocean Shot Research Grant Program.
The Ocean Shot Research Grant Program of the Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (OPRI-SPF) is supported by the Nippon Foundation.