Year
2000
A
PABITRA workshop was held during the 43rd Symposium of the International
Association of Vegetation Science (IAVS) in Nagano, Japan, July 23-28,
2000.The PABITRA theme was Tasks
of Vegetation Ecology in the PABITRA Net (the Pacific-Asia Biodiversity
Transect Network).
The
introduction to the workshop was given during a plenary session by Dieter
Mueller-Dombois.Subsequently, the
workshop had a large sustained audience.The
workshop was divided into five sub-themes with speakers and topics as follows:
IAssessment
and monitoring of plant biodiversity in the Pacific islands
1.Curtis
C. Daehler, Honolulu
Recent
vegetation change in dry, leeward habitats of the Hawaiian Islands, the
northern outliers of PABITRA
2.Jean-Yves
Meyer, Papeete, Tahiti
Invasive
plants in native forests of Eastern Polynesia, the eastern outliers of
PABITRA
3.Syuzo
Itow, Nagasaki
A
simple method to measure plant biodiversity across the PABITRA islands
4.Michael
Kiehn with Tod Stuessy and Josef Greimler, Vienna, Austria
PABITRA
related studies on Robinson Crusoe Island
5.Randy
R. Thaman, Suva, Fiji
The
PABITRA Gateway site in Fiji
IIAnalysis
of human relationships to island biodiversity
6.Will
McClatchey with Myknee Siricolo, Honolulu and Solomon Islands
PABITRA
monitoring of biodiversity with ethnobotanical documentation in the western
Solomon Islands
7.Harley
I. Manner, Mangilao, Guam
Traditional
agricultural systems and biodiversity in the Pacific islands, a PABITRA
perspective
8.Randy
R. Thaman, Suva, Fiji
Biodiversity
in human support systems of the Pacific islands
III.Analysis
of freshwater flow, its relation to island biodiversity and ecosystem
health
9.
James O. Juvik, Hilo, Hawai`i
Integrated
watershed and biodiversity management for PABITRA sites: monitoring
topo-climatic gradients
10.
Christoph Leuschner, Goettingen, Germany (abstract only)
Functional
roles of biodiversity in PABITRA watersheds using horizontal gradients
(the BIOGRASP approach)
IV.
Historical perspectives on island biodiversity
11.
Richard Pott, Hannover, Germany
Interactions
between climate and human impacts: a paleoecological approach to the study
of biodiversity evolution in the Canary Islands
12.
Michael Kiehn, Vienna, Austria
The
genus Cyrtandra (Gesneraceae): its indicator potential for assessing the health
of PABITRA forests
V.
Coordination of PABITRA project
13.
Kent W. Bridges, Honolulu
Support
of multidisciplinary ecosystem studies with Internet-based integrative techniques
14.
Dieter Mueller-Dombois, Honolulu
Methods
to initiate PABITRA field work for IBOY 2001
The
workshop mode of the PABITRA session was informal, and provoked much discussion.
Abstracts are published in the IAVS 2000 Abstract book by the Institute
of Environmental Science and Technology, Yokohama National University,
Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
A
Hawai`i PABITRA field meeting to sites on four islands in late September
2000 was followed by a PABITRA field meeting in Fiji during the first
week of October 2000.Involved
were four members of the Geobotanical Institute at the University Hannover,
Germany, a PABITRA partnership institute.The
field meeting in Hawai`i was organized by Dieter Mueller-Dombois with support
of Hawai`i PABITRA members Jim Jacobi, Jim and Sonja Juvik, Lloyd Loope,
and Curt Daehler.The field meeting
in Fiji was organized by Randy Thaman with support from Marika Tuiwawa,
Semi Duabe, and Gunnar Keppel.The
Fiji field meeting was an exploratory trip for establishing the PABITRA
Gateway site on Viti Levu.We visited
coastal habitats and two offshore islands near the mouth of the Rewa River,
and also agro-ecosystems inland up to near Vunidawa.Because
of the recent political instability in Fiji, our field trip was diverted
from there to Nadi.We made a trip
to Mt. Koroyanitu and some of us drove to Navai Village near Mt. Tomaniivi.Here,
following a kawa ceremony with the villagers, we received permission and
future support for the PABITRA partnership team (University of the South
Pacific – University of Hawai'i Botany Department – University of Hannover
Geobotanical Institute) to do research in the upland watershed forest of
the Mabu Catchment.
November
2000
– A three-day joint DIWPA-PABITRA workshop took place in Seta, Japan.The
objective was to discuss the Implementation of IBOY (the International
Biodiversity Observation Year).Four
PABITRA members participated as invitees, Curtis Daehler, Jim Juvik, Marika
Tuiwawa, and Dieter Mueller-Dombois.At
this time, we decided on a phase I strategy to reduce the formerly proposed
20 transect sites to four core sites (Fiji, Hawai`i, Taiwan and Borneo)
and five satellite sites (Pohnpei, Samoa, Marquesas, Solomon Islands).Following
that meeting, an updated version of an island ecosystem manual titled "Research
Methods to Initiate PABITRA" was submitted to the DIWPA office at Kyoto
University for publication in the revised Protocol Manual for IBOY-DIWPA.
Year
2001
A
second PABITRA field meeting took place in February 2001.Marika
Tuiwawa, Curator of the Fiji Herbarium, had organized a PABITRA team to
start forest vegetation research in the Mabu Catchment.I
had a chance to join up with that group and we spent a day of reconnaissance
and plant collecting in the Mabu Catchment.On
a following day, we made a mock plot in a forest near Navai Village to
try out two types of sample plot procedures (count-plots and relev¾s).
The
most recent PABITRA activity was a 5th symposium/workshop in
Guam during the 10th Pacific Science Inter-Congress in Guam,
June 1-6, 2001.The session topic
was Biodiversity: Science for Ecosystem Conservation in the PABITRA
Net: Tasks accomplished for IBOY 2001.
Papers
presented were:
1.Dieter
Mueller-Dombois, Honolulu
Biodiversity
Assessment in Tropical Island Ecosystems: The PABITRA Approach
2.Jim
Juvik, Hilo, Hawai`i, with Jesse Liwai and John Delay
The
Climate and Hydrology of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Measurement and
Characterization of Ecosystem Services at PABITRA Sites
3.Marika
Tuiwawa, Fiji
The
Vegetation Ecology of Waisoi: A Pristine Rain Forest in SE Viti Levu, Fiji
4.Kathy
Ewel, USDA Forest Service, Honolulu with W. M. Drew, R. L. Naylor, and
A. Sigrah
Importance
of a Tropical Freshwater Wetland
5.Mike
Fitzsimons, Louisiana State University with Bob Nishimoto, Division of
Aquatic Resources, Hawai`i
Methods
for Analyzing Freshwater Stream Ecosystems on Oceanic Islands of the Tropical
Pacific
6.Jim
Jacobi, USGS, Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center
Resource
Mapping and Analysis Using GIS
7.Yoshikazu
Shimizu, Komazawa University, Japan
The
Polynesian Elements in the Bonin Islands
8.Syuzo
Itow, Nagasaki University, Japan
Effects
of Rainshadows and Volcanological Ages on Galapagos Vegetation Zonation
9.Alan
Tye, Botany Department, Charles Darwin Research Station, Ecuador
Assessing
and Monitoring the Status of Endemic Plants in the Galapagos Islands
10.Curtis
Daehler, University Hawai`i Botany Department
Measuring
the Degree of Ecosystem Invasion by Alien Pest Plants
11.Marika
Tuiwawa with Bill Aalbersberg, University of the South Pacific, Institute
of Applied Science
Conservation
and Management Plan for the Threatened and Unique Plants in a Rain Forest
of SE Viti Levu, Fiji
12.Harley
Manner, University of Guam
Concluding
Remarks with Reference to Agroecosystems
Abstracts
are published in the Proceedings book "The Integration of Natural and Social
Sciences in the New Pacific Millennium" 2001.Guam
Graduate School of Research and Pacific Science Association.
Currently,
14 PABITRA members are engaged in writing a manual for "Assessing Biodiversity
in Tropical Island Ecosystems", in part based on what was presented in
Guam and previous workshops.
Summary
of Main Events including Background
1994September:
International Forum on DIVERSITAS in Paris, held by IUBS/UNESCO with support
of other international science organizations (SCOPE, ICSU, IGBP, GCTE,
IUMS).The DIWPA Network (DIVERSITAS
in Western Pacific and Asia), was then initiated by members of the Ecological
Research Center at Kyoto University.Dieter
Mueller-Dombois was invited to be a member of the DIWPA Steering Committee.
1995December:
DIWPA Symposium in Singapore on "Biodiversity and the Dynamics of Ecosystems."Published
1996 as DIWPA Series Volume 1.Island
ecosystems were included with a paper on "Research hypotheses for DIWPA
cooperation" (by Dieter Mueller-Dombois and Kanehiro Kitayama).
1996June:
Eighths Pacific Science Inter-Congress in Fiji.A
special workshop was held to establish a Biodiversity Transect across the
Pacific high-island archipelagoes for a comparative study of their indigenous
watershed forests.
1997November:
Joint IUBS General Assembly and DIWPA workshop in Taipei.The
PABITRA concept was presented and published as "Plant biodiversity in tropical
ecosystems across the Asia-Pacific region.Pages
105-113 in Frontiers in Biology: the Challenges of Biodiversity, Biotechnology,
and Sustainable Agriculture.Academia
Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.1998.
At
this time, the Director of DIWPA, Professor H. Kawanabe, suggested that
PABITRA become a sister network of DIWPA.
1998November:
Ninth Pacific Science Inter-Congress in Taipei.Second
PABITRA workshop with focus on site selection criteria and a list of proposed
PABITRA islands.Published subsequently
as "The Pacific-Asia Biodiversity Transect (PABITRA): A New Conservation
Biology Initiative" pages 13-20 in Biodiversity and Allelopathy: From
Organisms to Ecosystems in the Pacific.Academia
Sinica, Taipei.1999.
1999July:
Nineteenth Pacific Science Congress in Sydney.Third
PABITRA workshop on "Preliminary site descriptions and projects for PABITRA."Preceding
this Congress was a one-day joint DIWPA/PABITRA workshop in Sydney on developing
a coordinated research protocol manual for IBOY 2001.
2000July:
Fourth PABITRA workshop at IAVS Symposium in Nagano with focus on "Tasks
for Vegetation Ecology in the PABITRA Net."(As
outlined above).
2001June:
Fifth PABITRA workshop at 10th Pacific Science Inter-Congress
in Guam with PABITRA focus on methodology and ecosystem interaction.A
new leading PABITRA topic emerged as "The Ecology of Landscape Disturbance
in Oceania: From Cloud Forest to Coral Reef ."
A
next event will be the GBF-Pacific Regional Session, the first Global Biodiversity
Forum for the Pacific.This will
take place at the East-West Center in Honolulu, 25-28 September 2001.Several
PABITRA members have submitted abstracts for this important international
conference.
Also
in consideration: A third PABITRA field meeting in Fiji in early November,
following the SPREP/Nature Conservancy Round Table Meeting from October
28 to November 3.
2003:
For the Pacific Science Congress in Bangkok, 17-21 March 2003, the main
PABITRA theme suggested is "The Ecology of Landscape Disturbance in Oceania
and its Impact on the Traditional Human Support System."
At
that event, Dieter Mueller-Dombois will transfer the Chair of the PSA Ecosystem
Division and PABITRA Network to Curtis C. Daehler, Associate Professor
of Botany, University of Hawai`i at Manoa.