JAMBIO as a distributed research platform for Japanese nation-wide projects

JAMBIO, the Japanese Association for Marine Biology, was established to facilitate collaboration among Japanese marine stations in research, education and administration. Including both biological and fisheries stations, it currently consists of 23 member marine stations. It also provides opportunities for collaboration and information sharing for marine biologists who are not based at marine stations. JAMBIO acts as a center for international cooperation and represents Japan in the World Association of Marine Stations (WAMS). JAMBIO has played a major role as a distributed research platform for several nationwide projects, such as the JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys, the All Nippon eDNA Monitoring Network (ANEMONE), the Tara-JAMBIO Microplastic Joint Survey, and the Tara-JAMBIO Blue Carbon Project. These projects have led to numerous scientific publications, valuable datasets, and impactful outreach activities. Through these initiatives, JAMBIO aims to further accelerate nationwide interdisciplinary research collaborations among diverse marine biology research communities in Japan, and to develop advanced, cross-disciplinary, next generationresearch areas in marine biology. Furthermore, the framework established between JAMBIO and researcher communities in Japan may be applied to collaborations between WAMS and multinational researchers to support large-scale marine projects globally.