Pacific Programs

PACIFIC PROGRAMS

Palmyra Atoll

pac-kate Palmyra Atoll is a complex of some 50 small, undeveloped islands, islets, and sand flats surrounded by more than 15,000 acres of coral reef systems and lagoons. The atoll is situated at the northern end of the Line Islands, about 1,052 miles south of Hawai’i. The American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) is a core member of the newly formed Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium (PARC), which also includes Stanford University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego), California Academy of Sciences, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, University of Hawai'i, University of Victoria, and The Nature Conservancy. PARC has been developing a premier research facility on the atoll, and members of the CBC are deeply involved in both guiding this process and in conducting some of the initial scientific research.

Although the islands have never supported any permanent settlements, Palmyra’s terrestrial and lagoonal habitats have been dramatically modified by people, especially during the Second World War when U.S. forces used the island as a naval air facility and made substantial modifications, including dredging channels, creating new islands, joining islands, and building roads and runways. However, because of its isolation and relative lack of human disturbance, the deeper water marine resources have not been impacted to the degree of those in most other tropical island systems, and the atoll’s outer reef systems maintain a diverse flora and fauna thought to be reminiscent of how reef ecosystems worldwide used to be. Palmyra therefore represents a rare opportunity for researchers to gain a more complete understanding of the full suite of biodiversity making up intact reef ecosystems, and how such intact, healthy systems function. The fauna of the inner lagoon has undergone major alterations due to the joining of the islands, which dramatically changed water flow in the lagoon. Nevertheless, the complex habitats and semi-impacted waters support a large but barely studied sea turtle population. The islands also support one of the last surviving stands of Pisonia beach forest in the U.S. Pacific and a large community of seabirds.

CBC marine researchers are in the process of developing long-term collaborative projects to study the dynamics and diversity of the benthic reef and lagoon communities of Palmyra. Among these projects are several long-term monitoring studies that will allow CBC and PARC researchers to observe and describe coral recruitment, growth, and mortality over time in order to provide a more complete understanding of how these processes contribute to reef dynamics. Studies of recruitment and early ecological succession on reefs will provide insights and predictions regarding the long-term health of the reef ecosystem, and may also provide a baseline that can be used to evaluate other Pacific coral populations that have been more heavily impacted by human disturbance.

In addition, CBC experts are evaluating the status of Palmyra's seabird and sea turtle populations. All of the CBC's work on Palmyra will provide critical information for better marine and island conservation planning, helping to uncover ways to conserve, manage, and restore the world’s increasingly threatened tropical marine ecosystems.

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation’s mission is to mitigate threats to global biodiversity by:
• expanding scientific research on diverse species in critical ecosystems;
• strengthening the quality and quantity of scientific data used to inform conservation strategies and public policy;
• building professional and institutional capacity; and
• contributing to the Museum's programs to heighten public understanding and stewardship of biodiversity.

Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands comprise one of the most intact and biologically rich oceanic archipelagos on Earth. Extreme patterns of endemism and geographic differentiation among populations across its islands have attracted the attention of prominent biologists since the Museum’s Whitney South Seas Expedition nearly a century ago. CBC scientists are currently conducting basic natural history and systematic work on birds and frogs, in addition to research projects that focus on processes of geographic differentiation and speciation among island birds. However, with one of the fastest growing populations on the globe, and little economic alternative to escalating mining and timber industries, pressure on the diverse land and seascapes of this tropical region is immense. At present, there are no formal protected areas in the Solomon Islands. Land use is determined by holders of customary rights to the land, namely individuals within local communities, which complicates biodiversity conservation. Extractive industry has exploited this situation and the result has been startling increases in large-scale logging. If the remarkable diversity of the Solomons is to survive and continue to inspire and sustain human communities, a national protected areas strategy, including immediate land use alternatives to large-scale foreign resource extraction, is imperative.

To build capacity for biodiversity conservation and more balanced land-use practices in the Solomon Islands, the CBC is initiating community-based biodiversity research, education, and conservation activities that span the archipelago. Our approach embraces land tenure in the Solomons; with appropriate incentives, landholding communities can protect a remarkable component of the Earth’s living diversity. We are establishing a legal and logistical framework to enable communites in control of important areas for biodiversity to enter into negotiated long-term agreements with parties seeking to “invest” in conservation, such as international donor agencies. In return, we are working to provide direct economic alternatives to resource extraction that are more conducive to lasting conservation.

Next Steps

Palmyra Atoll

• The installed tiles and nearby substrates will be examined bi-annually to assess coral recruitment and growth. Carbonate blocks will be similarly installed at each of the Palmyra study sites in order to study bioeroding organisms that typically invade corals and are among the major contributors to natural reef breakdown. The blocks will be examined to evaluate and understand the role of bioerosion in these reef communities and compare them to others throughout the world.

• A monitoring study of Palmyra’s inner lagoon systems will be established to help understand the dynamics of community change during the planned mitigation efforts, which are predicted to change the flow dynamics within the atoll.

Solomon Islands

• The current government of the Solomon Islands and several international donor agencies have formally endorsed our approach to establishing an initial portfolio of high-profile protected areas in the Solomons as a first step toward establishing a National Biodiversity Trust for the country. To facilitate this, an implementation framework for community-based protected areas agreements will be developed and the resulting set of protected areas will be used to raise funds for the trust. Ongoing biodiversity surveys of poorly known montane regions will continue with planned expeditions to the Bauro Highlands on Makira Island, and along the high ridgelines of Mount Popamanaseu, Guadalcanal.