scholarly journals Morphological and genetic divergence supports peripheral endemism and a recent evolutionary history of Chrysiptera demoiselles in the subtropical South Pacific

Coral Reefs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Libby Liggins ◽  
Liam Kilduff ◽  
Thomas Trnski ◽  
Erwan Delrieu-Trottin ◽  
Jose I. Carvajal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Pacific ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Disjunct Distribution ◽  
Evolutionary Relationships ◽  
The South ◽  
Rapa Nui ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Disjunct Populations ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe delineation of species and their evolutionary relationships informs our understanding of biogeography and how regional faunas are assembled. The peripheral geography and local environment of reefs in the subtropical South Pacific likely promotes the allopatric and adaptive divergence of taxa colonising from the tropics; however, the fauna of this region has been relatively understudied. Here, we address the taxonomic and evolutionary relationships among Chrysiptera taxa of the subtropical South Pacific. We use meristic counts, morphometrics and genetic markers to characterise the similarities and differences among four taxa restricted to the South Pacific region that have strikingly different colouration: C. notialis, a taxon restricted to eastern Australia, New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island; C. galba, found in the Cook Islands, southern French Polynesia and Pitcairn Islands; and the two disjunct populations of C. rapanui, found in the eastern Pacific around Rapa Nui (Isla de Pascua or Easter Island) and Motu Motiro Hiva (Salas y Gómez) and in the South-western Pacific around Rangitāhua (Kermadec Islands). Our morphometric analysis confirmed that these four taxa, including the two disjunct populations of C. rapanui, are morphologically distinct. However, our genetic analysis revealed that only C. rapanui from Rapa Nui was genetically differentiated, whereas C. rapanui of Rangitāhua, C. galba and C. notialis all shared a common haplotype. Furthermore, none of the taxa could be consistently differentiated based on individual meristic features. Our study reconciles a formerly perplexing and disjunct distribution for C. rapanui, to reveal that C. rapanui is an endemic of Rapa Nui and that the Chrysiptera of French Polynesia, Rangitāhua, and the South-western Pacific have only a very recent history of divergence. Our analyses suggest these subtropical taxa have diverged from a predominantly tropical Chrysiptera genus in morphological features important in determining colonisation success, locomotion and feeding ecology.

Digging in: a review of the ecology and management of a threatened reptile with a small disjunct distribution – the heath skink, Liopholis multiscutata, in Victoria, south-eastern Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff W. Brown ◽  
Peter Robertson ◽  
Ben G. Fanson
Keyword(s):  
General Trend ◽  
Disjunct Distribution ◽  
Population Status ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Disjunct Populations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Management Priorities ◽  
Ongoing Monitoring

The central issue for species that are highly localised habitat specialists and occur in relatively small numbers is vulnerability to extinction processes. The heath skink, Liopholis multiscutata, is considered Critically Endangered in Victoria, in part because it is restricted to essentially four small and highly disjunct populations in semiarid mallee dunefields. It provides an example of a rare and cryptic species that is especially vulnerable to decline and consequently provides management challenges. Here, we crystallise available information on the ecology and life history of this threatened lizard, and review monitoring data to evaluate population status, primary threats and management imperatives. There has been a substantial decrease across the known range of the lizard in Victoria, most likely due to predation and fire. Recent monitoring of the four potentially viable populations revealed a general trend of decline. Recommendations for research and management priorities for the lizard in Victoria are provided; generally, these include further exploration of the lizard’s phylogeny and ecology, and ongoing monitoring of the trajectory of the lizard’s population status, threats to the lizard’s persistence and the effectiveness of management actions employed to ameliorate extinction threats.

Daily accumulation rates of marine litter on the shores of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the South Pacific Ocean

2021 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 112535
Author(s):  
Martin Thiel ◽  
Bárbara Barrera Lorca ◽  
Luis Bravo ◽  
Iván A. Hinojosa ◽  
Hugo Zeballos Meneses
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Easter Island ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
The South ◽  
Rapa Nui ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
South Pacific Ocean

Sailing into the Anthropocene

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dauvergne
Keyword(s):  
South Pacific ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
The South ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Starting Date ◽  
History Of The South

Chapters 2–6 survey the political and socioeconomic forces underlying the global sustainability crisis. Understanding the scale and depth of contemporary forces of capitalism and consumerism requires a close look at the consequences of imperialism and colonialism on patterns of violence and exploitation. This chapter begins this process of understanding by sketching the history of ecological imperialism after 1600, seeing this as a reasonable starting date for the beginning of what many scholars are now calling the Anthropocene Epoch (or the age of humans, replacing the geologic epoch of the Holocene beginning 12,000 years ago). It opens with Captain Pedro Fernandes de Queirós’s voyage across the Pacific Ocean in 1605–06 to “discover” modern-day Vanuatu, before turning to look more globally at the devastation of imperialism – and later colonialism – for the South Pacific, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Over this time conquerors enslaved and murdered large numbers of indigenous people; cataclysmic change came as well, however, from the introduction of European diseases, plants, and animals. This chapter’s survey of imperialism, colonialism, and globalization sets the stage for Chapter 3, which explores the devastating history of the South Pacific island of Nauru after 1798.

scholarly journals Evidence of cryptic species in the blenniid Cirripectes alboapicalis species complex, with zoogeographic implications for the South Pacific

ZooKeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 810 ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwan Delrieu-Trottin ◽  
Libby Liggins ◽  
Thomas Trnski ◽  
Jeffrey T. Williams ◽  
Valentina Neglia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cryptic Species ◽  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Species Complex ◽  
Genetic Relationships ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Rapa Nui ◽  
Distribution Ranges ◽  
Geographic Distributions

Rapa Nui, commonly known as Easter Island (Chile), is one of the most isolated tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. The island location of Rapa Nui makes it the easternmost point of the geographic ranges for many western Pacific fish species that are restricted to the subtropical islands south of 20°S latitude. The blenniid fish speciesCirripectesalboapicalishas been thought to have one of the most extensive geographic distribution ranges among these southern subtropical fish species, extending from the southern Great Barrier Reef to Rapa Nui. A phylogenetic analysis was conducted to determine the taxonomic status of the species. The results provide genetic evidence that suggests that this formerly South Pacific-wide species comprises at least three cryptic species with allopatric geographic distributions. The analyses reveal the geographic distributions of these clades and their genetic relationships with each other, and with other species within the genusCirripectes. The processes that culminated in the current geographic distribution of this species complex and the zoogeographic implications of this finding for the South Pacific region are discussed.

Nuclear Testing and Human Rights

1996 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Kadelbach
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
European Commission ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Nuclear Testing ◽  
The South ◽  
Procedural Law ◽  
Underground Nuclear Testing

On 4 December 1995, the European Commission of Human Rights dismissed a complaint filed by inhabitants of French Polynesia against the decision of the President of the French Republic to resume underground nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The case raises a series of issues regarding both substantive human rights law and procedural law which are of general interest for human rights litigation in cases of degradation of the environment. The decision misses the opportunity to elaborate on how to protect human fights against potentially harmful activities when the risk incurred is in dispute. Thus, it raises more questions than it answers.

scholarly journals Norfolk Island and Australia: a history of uneasy relationship

2020 ◽  
pp. 224-231
Author(s):  
S. E. Pale ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The South ◽  
The Past ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Norfolk Island ◽  
History Of

This article is about the complicated relations between Norfolk Island located in the South Pacific and Australia that possesses the island as its ‘external territory’. Over the past century Australia and its tiny but strategically important possession have overcome many difficult moments, the most dramatic of which took place in 2015, when the Australian Parliament ended self-government on the island and put Norfolk under the laws of New South Wales thus making it part of Australia.

Travelling light: Fouling biota on macroplastics arriving on beaches of remote Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre

2018 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Rech ◽  
Martin Thiel ◽  
Yaisel J. Borrell Pichs ◽  
Eva García-Vazquez
Keyword(s):  
South Pacific ◽  
Easter Island ◽  
Subtropical Gyre ◽  
The South ◽  
Rapa Nui
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