National Institute for Environmental Studies

National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan, NIES is funded by the Ministry of Environment, Japan, covering a wide range of environmental researches such as climate change, pollution, biodiversity, material cycling, human health, and sustainability. It comprises eight research centers and one regional branch, some of which are working on regional and global nitrogen issues. The Center for Global Environmental Research is measuring atmospheric composition including several nitrogenous gases and developing a global biogeochemical cycling model. The Center for Regional Environmental Research is observing watershed-scale nitrogen cycling from atmospheric deposition to underground leaching. NIES has internal activities for these center's missions and several funded projects for integrated assessment on climatic change.