Pacific Science Volume 56, Number 2, 2002

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Pacific Science is a quarterly publication devoted to the biological and physical sciences of the Pacific Region.

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    Do Locals Rule? Interactions between Native Intertidal Animals and a Caribbean Barnacle in Hawai'i
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Zabin, Chela; Hadfield, Michael G.
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    Species Introductions and Potential for Marine Pest Invasions into Tropical Marine Communities, with Special Reference to the Indo-Pacific
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Hutchings, P.A.; Hilliard, R.W.; Coles, S.L.
    Introductions of marine species by hull fouling or ballast water have occurred extensively in temperate areas, often with substantial deleterious impacts. However, current information suggests that marine introductions potentially able to achieve pest species status have been fewer in tropical regions. A 1997 risk assessment examining introductions to 12 tropical ports in Queensland (Australia) concluded that far fewer marine species appeared to have been introduced, even at major bulk export ports where the number of ship visits and volume of discharged ballast water are more than at most of Australia's cooler water ports. Results from recent surveys looking for introduced species in tropical ports across northern Australia are beginning to support this conclusion, although the lack of historic baseline surveys and the poor taxonomic status of many tropical groups are preventing a precise picture. The 1997 report also concluded that, apart from pathogens and parasites of warm-water species, the potential for marine pest invasions in Queensland tropical ports appeared to be low, and not only because much of the discharged ballast water originates from temperate ports in North Asia. In contrast, recent surveys of harbors in Hawai'i have found over 110 introduced species (including 23 cryptogenic species), the majority in the estuarine embayments of Pearl Harbor and O'ahu's commercial harbors. We suggest that the biogeographically isolated and less diverse marine communities of Hawaiian ports have been more susceptible to introductions than those of tropical Australia for several reasons, including the closeness of Australia to the central Indo-Pacific "triangle" of megadiversity (Indonesia-Philippines- Papua New Guinea) and consequent high biodiversity and low endemicity, hence offering fewer niches for nonindigenous species to become established. The isolated central Pacific position of Hawai'i and its long history of receiving worldwide commercial and naval shipping (including more heavily fouled vessels than contemporary merchant ships) is another key factor, although the estuarine warm-water ports of Townsville, Brisbane, and Darwin also provided anchorages for military units during World War n. Hull fouling remains an important vector, as it is the most likely cause of the recent transfer of the highly invasive Caribbean black-striped mussel (Mytilopsis sallei) to enclosed (lock-gate) marinas in Darwin by international cruising yachts arriving via the Panama Canal. The cost of eliminating this pest (>US$1.6 million) underscores the importance of managing not just commercial shipping but also pleasure craft, fishing boats, and naval ships as vectors of exotic species to ports, harbors, and marinas in coral reef areas.
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    Distribution and Biodiversity of Australian Tropical Marine Bioinvasions
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Hewitt, Chad L.
    Marine invasions have been identified in virtually all regions of the world, yet relatively few introductions have been detected in the Tropics. This has been attributed at least in part to an increase in intrinsic native community resistance at lower latitudes resulting from strongly interacting food webs in high(er) diversity systems. However, recent evidence from surveys in Australia and elsewhere indicate that tropical systems are also susceptible to invasions, though detection ability may be constrained by taxonomic limitations. Preliminary analyses of data from surveys designed to detect introduced species do not support a pattern of decreased invasion success in higher diversity systems but do indicate a strong latitudinal gradient at the mesoscale of Australia. This cannot be attributed to disparities in search effort (controlled for by consistency in survey effort) or taxonomic knowledge. The original hypothesis of a decreased relative susceptibility of tropical versus temperate biota to invasions may remain viable, but be scale dependent. Additional confounding factors may include differing vector strengths and availability of source bioregions.
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    Hawaiian Marine Bioinvasions: A Preliminary Assessment
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Eldredge, L.G.; Carlton, J.T.
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    Nonindigenous Species Introductions on Coral Reefs: A Need for Information
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Coles, S.L.; Eldgredge, L.G.
    Nonindigenous species invasions have caused disruptions of native communities and detrimental economic impacts to fisheries in many temperate marine areas. However, comparatively little information exists for tropical regions, and even less is known about occurrences and impacts of nonindigenous species on coral reefs. Studies in the Tropics to date have mostly been limited to surveys in harbors and ports where corals and reef organisms are usually missing or rare and environmental conditions are usually quite different from those found on coral reefs. The few studies available for coral reefs suggest that nonindigenous species are thus far a relatively minor component of the total biota, but some species, especially introduced red algae, can be invasive and dominate reef areas. With limited information available, there is a need for studies of the occurrence and impacts of nonindigenous species that are focused on coral reef environments. This review summarizes the information for nonindigenous species from harbors, embayments, and coral reef surveys in the tropical Pacific and outlines procedures for studies to detect species introductions.
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    Mixed Siliciclastic-Skeletal Carbonate Lagoon Sediments from a High Volcanic Island, Viti Levu, Fiji, Southwest Pacific
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Gussmann, Oliver A.; Smith, Abigail M.
    Modem sedimentation in the Navua-Suva Lagoon, southeastern Viti Levu, Fiji, derives from both allochthonous siliciclastics and autochthonous marine carbonates. Sediments are characterized by a high insoluble load, small grain size, a wide range of textures, and a high degree of mixing. The distribution of the two facies (skeletal-dominated muddy sandy gravel and skeletalbearing very fine sand to mud) is controlled by both the shallow-marine carbonate sediment productivity and sediment supply and dispersal processes from siliciclastic point sources across a narrow lagoon. Mollusks and Halimeda dominate the gravel fraction of the skeletal grains. Sediment budget estimates indicate that 97% of the siliciclastic supply bypasses the lagoon. Some 0.2 Mt/yr is accumulating in the lagoon, not yet enough to inhibit potential carbonate production (~0.1 Mt/yr) by a interreefal benthos that is at least somewhat sediment-tolerant. Contemporary allochthonous siliciclastic and autochthonous skeletal carbonate sedimentation in the lagoon results in true syndepositional (in situ) mixing. The central high volcanic island mass in a tropical setting produces the geomorphological (high topographic relief, narrow shelf), environmental (high rainfall), and ecological (shallow benthic area) conditions that lead to carbonate-siliciclastic mixing in lagoons along adjacent, mostly carbonate, coasts of oceanic islands, a high volcanic island mass effect. We propose that tropical in situ mixing of carbonate and siliciclastic sediments is more common in high volcanic island settings than previously appreciated. Such islands are thus excellent testing grounds for the study of carbonate-siliciclastic interactions. Their special characteristics highlight the need for better understanding of coastal physical processes of tropical Pacific high volcanic islands.
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    Reproduction in an Introduced Population of the Brown Anole, Anolis sagrei, from O'ahu, Hawai'i
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Goldberg, Stephen R.; Kraus, Fred; Bursey, Charles R.
    The reproductive cycle of an introduced population of the brown anole, Analis sagrei, from O'ahu, Hawai'i, was studied from a histological examination of monthly samples collected July 1999 to June 2000. Males undergo a seasonal testicular cycle in which all males> 38 mm snout-vent length are in spermiogenesis from January to August. Although some ovarian activity was found in all months, the period of greatest ovarian inactivity was October-December, which corresponds to the time of male gonadal regression. The reproductive cycle of A. sagrei in Hawai'i resembles that of populations in Belize, Florida, and Jamaica, where minimum gonadal activity was recorded from November through February. Body sizes at reproductive maturity were similar in all four localities. Analis sagrei in Hawai'i has an ovarian cycle typical of other Analis lizards with a prolonged breeding season and production of single eggs in succession. Because A. sagrei has been in Hawai'i for only approximately 20 yr, sufficient time has not elapsed to allow evolution of its reproductive cycles, but this study presents baseline reproductive data that can be used for future studies to see if the A. sagrei reproductive cycles are modified as the lizards adapt to the environmental conditions of their newly colonized range.
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    On Two Species of Kallymenia (Rhodophyta: Gigartinales: Kallymeniaceae) from the Hawaiian Islands, Central Pacific
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Abbott, Isabella A.; McDermid, Karla J.
    Two species of Kallymenia from the Hawaiian Islands, one rare, K. sessilis Okamura, and the other described here for the first time, K. thompsonii, n. sp., are examined, compared, and contrasted with other similar Kallymenia species. Both species are unusual because Kallymenia is generally regarded as a temperate taxon, and tropical or subtropical species are seldom encountered. The two species are alike in that they have a female reproductive apparatus that is monocarpogonial: wherein a single carpogonial filament is associated with a supporting cell also bearing an arrangement of subsidiary cells that is characteristic of some of the family Kallymeniaceae. In the genus Kallymenia, vegetative components shown in a cross section are a narrow outer cortex, often only three cells thick, followed inwardly by one to two layers of subcortical cells. In the two species studied here, there appears to be a constant shape and arrangement of subcortical cells in each species, whereas the number of medullary filaments and their arrangements appear to be less stable in their configuration than the subcortical cells. Branched refractive cells or stellate cells, which often occur in species of Kallymenia, were not seen in K thompsonii and only rarely in K sessilis. Kallymenia thompsonii commonly has perforations in the maturing blades, whereas K. sessilis does not.
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    The Land Snails of a Small Tropical Pacific Island Aunu'u, American Samoa
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Cowie, Robert H.; Rundell, Rebecca J.
    Survey work on the American Samoan island of Aunu'u, a small island off the eastern end of Tutuila, combined with review of museum collections, increased the known land snail fauna of the island from 2 to 22 species. Of these species, 12 are native to the Samoan Archipelago, nine are introduced, and one is cryptogenic (of unknown origin). The fauna is a subset of that of the main American Samoan island of Tutuila, although it also includes one species endemic to Aunu'u but now extinct.
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    The Nibbler Girella leonina and the Soldierfish Myripristis murdjan from Midway Atoll, First Records for the Hawaiian Islands
    (University of Hawai'i Press, 2002-04) Randall, John E.; Stender, G Keoki
    The girellid fish Girella leonina (Richardson) and the holocentrid Myripristis murdjan (Forsskal) are reported for the first time for the Hawaiian Islands from underwater photographs taken at Midway Atoll. Both species can be positively identified by the photographs.
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