Hiroya Kawanabe is Professor Emeritus at Kyoto University and Curator Emeritus of the Lake Biwa Museum. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Ecological Research, past President of the International Society of Species in Ancient Lakes, the Ecological Society of Japan and the Japanese Society of Ecology and Civil Engineering. His research themes are community ecology and life-culture diversity. Machiko Nishino is the Head of the Integrated Analysis Division at the Lake Biwa Environmental Research Institute. Her research themes are ecology of freshwater invertebrates and conservation ecology. Masayoshi Maehata is a Professor at Kobe Gakuin University and Curator Emeritus of the Lake Biwa Museum. Research themes are fish ecology and conservation ecology.