To evaluate the role of fish larvae as a Link between the microbial loop and higher trophic levels, predation of protozoan zooplankton by young larvae was investigated. More than 400 individual fish larvae with total lengths of less than ca 10 mm in 52 different taxonomic groups were collected at different sampling times from several coastal regions, and the gut contents of larvae were exarnined under epifluorescence microscopy after staining with DAPI. Among numerous fragments of copepod nauplii, many flagellate-like cells with a size of 5 pm and ciliate-like cells with a size of 20 to 30 pm were frequently recognized. The number of protozoan cells varied significantly from one larva to another. Some individuals had more than 60 protozoa. while others contained none at all. The amount of protists contained in the gut of larvae depended on the fish species and did not show any trend with the body or rnouth sizes of larvae, nor the sampling site or season. Fish taxa were divided into 3 groups depending on the amount of protists in the gut: 'abundant', 'moderate', and 'none' The Acanthopterygii group contained the highest concentration of protozoa. Results of the present study suggested that fish larvae of some taxonon~ical groups were important predators of protozoa and may be an important link between the microbial loop and the grazing food chain.

The FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope (FUGIN) project is one of the legacy projects using the new multi-beam FOREST receiver installed on the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. This project aims to investigate the distribution, kinematics, and physical properties of both diffuse and dense molecular gas in the Galaxy at once by observing 12 CO, 13 CO, and C 18 O J = 1 − 0 lines simultaneously. The mapping regions are a part of the 1st quadrant (10• ) of the Galaxy, where spiral arms, bar structure, and the molecular gas ring are included. This survey achieves the highest angular resolution to date (∼20 ′′ ) for the Galactic plane survey in the CO J = 1 − 0 lines, which makes it possible to find dense clumps located farther away than the previous surveys. FUGIN will provide us with an invaluable dataset for investigating the physics of the galactic interstellar medium (ISM), particularly the evolution of interstellar gas covering galactic scale structures to the internal structures of giant molecular clouds, such as small filament/clump/core. We present an overview of the FUGIN project, observation plan, and initial results, which reveal wide-field and detailed structures of molecular clouds, such as entangled filaments that have not been obvious in previous surveys, and large-scale kinematics of molecular gas such as spiral arms.