The issues of biodiversity is central to biological sciences. The Amakusa Biological Laboratory is devoted to the study of ecological communities on local, regional and global scales. Building on the Laboratory's long-established strength in shallow water marine ecological research in Japan, we are now dealing with not only marine but also freshwater and terrestrial systems, as there is much to be gained from comparative approaches of community ecology.

As a major centre of research in aquatic ecology in Japan, the AMBL aims at elucidating how a multitude of species can coexist and maintain ecological assemblages under different environmental conditions and evolutionary backgrounds. Many important ideas and concepts in this field are summarised in "Species Coexistence".

The Amakusa Marine Biological Laboratory is situated in the Amakusa-Shimoshima Island which constitutes part of the Unzen-Amakusa National Park in western Kyushu (southernmost of the four main islands of Japan), well known for its scenic beauty with rich temperate and subtropical floras and faunas. Past and present members of the AMBL have conducted research not only in Amakusa but in other regions of Japan including Okinawa islands and northern Japan. Research is also undertaken in South East Asia, South Pacific, Indian Ocean and South America. We consider it important to expand our ecological research to less well-researched areas of the world, in particular the tropics.