Project News

The Foram Sand Project consists of the ecology team, the coastal technology team and the remote sensing team.

I want to start with the ecology team's activities for increasing the number of forams. The biology of the foram has not been clearly understood yet. Therefore, we should clear it and encourage to reproduce at the same time.

The Project's target area is the Fogafale islet which is the main islet of Funafuti atoll; the capital of Tuvalu. Here is the most populous place among Tuvalu, that is to say, damages to the residents in Tuvalu are the most.

The ecology team samples living forams from various places in the Funafuti atoll to piece out the situation of the foram density and environment surrounding the forams.

This is the picture taken at the Fuagea islet, one of the islets of the Funafuti atoll. Beach seems orange by the color of foram sand.

They also sample the foram from the specific place on regular bases to get the information of its fertilization and division.

Besides the research at the field, we will start foram culture in the aquarium from March 2010.

After establishing the aquarium, we can study foram's biology in the tanks over many years. Based on the collected data from the field and aquarium, we encourage the reproduction of foram under the best condition in the aquarium and transplant them into the ocean for increasing the habitat areas in nature.

Wording Responsible: Fumiko Matsudate (Project Coordinator)