scholarly journals The Pacific Islands Climate Science Center five-year science agenda, 2014-2018

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Helweg ◽  
Sarah A.B. Nash ◽  
Dan A. Polhemus
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Science Center ◽  
The Pacific

Satellite Detection of Ghost Nets and Plastic Debris in Pacific Atolls

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangrong Ling ◽  
Lauren Biermann ◽  
Mark Manuel ◽  
Ellen Ramirez ◽  
Austin Coates ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Science Center ◽  
Spectral Angle Mapper ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
Fisheries Science ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Derelict Fishing Gear ◽  
Satellite Analysis

<p><span>Since 2014, the NOAA Satellite Analysis Branch has used high resolution optical satellite imagery in an effort to detect ghost nets (derelict fishing gear) and other large plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean and its atolls in support of clean-up efforts (by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ocean Voyages Institute, etc.). Until recently, reliable detection has proven challenging. With the application of Worldview imagery matched to <em>in situ</em> information on known net locations, we have been able to extract spectral signatures of floating plastics and use these to detect and identify other instances of plastic debris. Using ENVI’s Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) target detection method, a number of likely locations of nets/plastics in the Pearl and Hermes atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) were highlighted. The resulting locations of the 41 debris detections were strikingly similar to the distributions along the coast reported in surveys, and are consistent with those that would be expected due to the seasonal ocean currents. This satellite imagery analysis procedure will be repeated shortly before the next NWHI clean-up effort, which will better enable us to support the removal of ghost nets and other marine plastics, and also assess the accuracy and rapid reproducibility of the technique.</span></p>

Growing Coconut Palms in the Pacific Islands: Colliding Knowledge and Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Coconut Oil ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
The West ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Coconuts provided commodities for the West in the form of coconut oil and copra. Once colonial governments established control of the tropical Pacific Islands, they needed revenue so urged European settlers to establish coconut plantations. For some decades most copra came from Indigenous growers. Administrations constantly urged the people to thin old groves and plant new ones like plantations, in grid patterns, regularly spaced and weeded. Local growers were instructed to collect all fallen coconuts for copra from their groves. For half a century, the administrations’ requirements met with Indigenous passive resistance. This paper examines the underlying reasons for this, elucidating Indigenous ecological and social values, based on experiential knowledge, knowledge that clashed with Western scientific values.

Systematics, Biogeography, and Morphological Character Evolution of the Hemiepiphytic Subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Zuluaga ◽  
Martin Llano ◽  
Ken Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
R Package ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Ancestral State ◽  
Seed Shape ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Tropics

The subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) is the third richest clade in the family, with ca. 369 described species and ca. 700 estimated. It comprises mostly hemiepiphytic or epiphytic plants restricted to the tropics, with three intercontinental disjunctions. Using a dataset representing all 12 genera in Monsteroideae (126 taxa), and five plastid and two nuclear markers, we studied the systematics and historical biogeography of the group. We found high support for the monophyly of the three major clades (Spathiphylleae sister to Heteropsis Kunth and Rhaphidophora Hassk. clades), and for six of the genera within Monsteroideae. However, we found low rates of variation in the DNA sequences used and a lack of molecular markers suitable for species-level phylogenies in the group. We also performed ancestral state reconstruction of some morphological characters traditionally used for genera delimitation. Only seed shape and size, number of seeds, number of locules, and presence of endosperm showed utility in the classification of genera in Monsteroideae. We estimated ancestral ranges using a dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis model as implemented in the R package BioGeoBEARS and found evidence for a Gondwanan origin of the clade. One tropical disjunction (Monstera Adans. sister to Amydrium Schott–Epipremnum Schott) was found to be the product of a previous Boreotropical distribution. Two other disjunctions are more recent and likely due to long-distance dispersal: Spathiphyllum Schott (with Holochlamys Engl. nested within) represents a dispersal from South America to the Pacific Islands in Southeast Asia, and Rhaphidophora represents a dispersal from Asia to Africa. Future studies based on stronger phylogenetic reconstructions and complete morphological datasets are needed to explore the details of speciation and migration within and among areas in Asia.

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