​Dr. Tomohiro Kuwae is the Group Head of the Coastal and Estuarine Environment Research Group, Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI), National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology, Japan. He received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Applied Biosciences from Kyoto University and was an Adjunct Professor at Kumamoto University. His research interests include biogeochemical cycling in shallow coastal waters, especially carbon dioxide sequestration and carbon storage in shallow coastal ecosystems; fundamental ecology such as food-web structure and function; and the conservation, restoration, and creation of coastal ecosystems.

Dr. Masakazu Hori is a Senior Researcher at the Coastal Macrophyte Ecosystem Research Group, National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea (FEIS), Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA). He received a Ph. D. in Marine Environments and Resources from the GraduateSchool of Fisheries Science, Hokkaido University. He worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo and an adjunct instructor at Hiroshima University. He specializes in community and ecosystem ecology, including plant–animal interactions, food-web analyses, ecosystem services, and social-ecological systems in shallow coastal ecosystems.