Island Today Research Articles

Quaternary Bat Diversity in the Dominican Republic

The fossil record of bats is extensive in the Caribbean, but few fossils have previously been reported from the Dominican Republic. In this paper, we describe new collections of fossil bats from two flooded caves in the Dominican Republic, and summarize previous finds from the Island of Hispaniola. The new collections were evaluated in the context of extant and fossil faunas of the Greater Antilles to provide information on the evolution of the bat community of Hispaniola. Eleven species were identified within the new collections, including five mormoopids (Mormoops blainvillei, †Mormoops magna, Pteronotus macleayii, P. parnellii, and P. quadridens), five phyllostomids (Brachyphylla nana, Monophyllus redmani, Phyllonycteris poeyi, Erophylla bombifrons, and Phyllops falcatus), and one natalid (Chilonatalus micropus). All of these species today inhabitant Hispaniola with the exception of †Mormoops magna, an extinct species previously known only from the Quaternary of Cuba, and Pteronotus macleayii, which is currently known only from extant populations in Cuba and Jamaica, although Quaternary fossils have also been recovered in the Bahamas. Differences between the fossil faunas and those known from the island today suggest that dispersal and extirpation events, perhaps linked to climate change or stochastic events such as hurricanes, may have played roles in structuring the modern fauna of Hispaniola.

Abstracts for the PSA Panels at the ALA

Abstracts for the PSA Panels at the ALA

Gondwanatheria and ?Multituberculata (Mammalia) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

In addition to four isolated mammalian teeth from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Madagascar described previously and allocated to Gondwanatheria, Marsupialia, and Mammalia incertae sedis, here I put on record five more specimens. Four of these, a virtually complete lower molariform cheek tooth, two fragmentary cheek teeth, and a fragmentary lower incisor, are referred to the Sudamericidae (Gondwanatheria). The internal structure of the hypsodont cheek teeth, as revealed by micro-computed tomography scans to simulate different stages of wear, is highly variable. Limited knowledge of intra-individual morphological and size variability in the dentition of sudamericids, which are known almost exclusively from isolated teeth, precludes a conclusive assessment of whether some or all of the new specimens belong to Lavanify miolaka, the only previously described sudamericid from Madagascar, or to a new taxon. Conservatively, therefore, pending the recovery of better material, all four specimens are referred to Sudamericidae gen. et sp. indet. The fifth specimen, a molar fragment, is tentatively allocated to the Multituberculata, thereby adding to the controversial specimens that comprise the very sparse and questionable record of this clade on the southern supercontinent Gondwana. The new specimens do not provide any profound insight into the origins of the highly endemic and imbalanced extant mammalian fauna on Madagascar; rather, they provide only more negative evidence. Like those previously described, they do not represent the basal stocks of any of the five mammalian clades that live on the island today and therefore further support the growing consensus that representatives of the extant clades arrived in the Cenozoic.

Tectonic influences on the preservation of marine terraces: Old and new evidence from Santa Catalina Island, California

The California Channel Islands contain some of the best geologic records of past climate and sea-level changes, recorded in uplifted, fossil-bearing marine terrace deposits. Among the eight California Channel Islands and the nearby Palos Verdes Hills, only Santa Catalina Island does not exhibit prominent emergent marine terraces, though the same terrace-forming processes that acted on the other Channel Islands must also have occurred on Santa Catalina. We re-evaluated previous researchers' field evidence and examined new topographic, bathymetric, and stream-profile data in order to find possible explanations for the lack of obvious marine terrace landforms or deposits on the island today. The most likely explanation is associated with the island's unresolved tectonic history, with evidence for both recent uplift and subsidence being offered by different researchers. Bathymetric and seismic reflection data indicate the presence of submerged terrace-like landforms from a few meters below present sea level to depths far exceeding that of the lowest glacial lowstand, suggesting that the Catalina Island block may have subsided, submerging marine terraces that would have formed in the late Quaternary. Similar submerged marine terrace landforms exist offshore of all of the other California Channel Islands, including some at anomalously great depths, but late Quaternary uplift is well documented on those islands. Therefore, such submarine features must be more thoroughly investigated and adequately explained before they can be accepted as definitive evidence of subsidence. Nevertheless, the striking similarity of the terrace-like features around Santa Catalina Island to those surrounding the other, uplifting, Channel Islands prompted us to investigate other lines of evidence of tectonic activity, such as stream profile data. Recent uplift is suggested by disequilibrium stream profiles on the western side of the island, including nickpoints and profile convexities. Rapid uplift is also indicated by the island's highly dissected, steep topography and abundant landslides. A likely cause of uplift is a restraining bend in the offshore Catalina strike-slip fault. Our analysis suggests that Santa Catalina Island has recently experienced, and may still be experiencing, relatively rapid uplift, causing intense landscape rejuvenation that removed nearly all traces of marine terraces by erosion. A similar research approach, incorporating submarine as well as subaerial geomorphic data, could be applied to many tectonically active coastlines in which a marine terrace record appears to be missing.

Holocene Ostracods from the Borehole Core at Oppama Park, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Central Japan: Paleoenvironmental Analysis and the Discovery of a Fossil Ostracod with Three-Dimensionally Preserved Soft Parts

Abstract. Forty-seven sediment samples were taken from a borehole core at Oppama Park, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, central Japan. Fifty-eight ostracod species, representing 32 genera, were identified in the 32 samples. Three ostracod biofacies (I–III) were identified using Q-mode cluster analysis. On the basis of ostracod biofacies, the following paleoenvironmental changes were recognized in the study area: land mudflat (no ostracods) → muddy bottom environment of inner bay (biofacies III) → sandy bottom environment of bay near rocky shore (biofacies II) → shallow mudflat (biofacies I). Modern analog technique (MAT) showed that the paleoenvironment of the study area was a warm (maximum bottom temperature in summer around 30°C; minimum bottom temperature in winter around 7°C) and shallow bay, similar to that around Honshu Island today. An ostracod specimen, Parakrithella pseudadonta, with exceptionally well preserved soft parts was discovered in one of the horizons, at a core depth of 20.4–20.5 m. ...

The Memory Frontier: Uncommon Pursuits of Past and Place in the Northeast after King Philip's War

The runners set out before dawn. Traveling east from the rushing falls at South Natick, Massachusetts, they swept over cold earth and under mid-autumn stars, silhouetted by headlights cutting the dark. By the time they reached the river, the sun had risen just high enough to illuminate an astonishing sight. Three mishoonash, wooden dugouts fashioned by Wampanoag Indians, floated on the Charles River upstream from the Boston skyline and alongside crew teams stroking in dawn practice. Not since the days of King Philip’s War (1675–1678) had such vessels made the trip downriver to the harbor. The Sacred Run and Paddle, undertaken on October 30, 2010, commemorated one of the most wrenching chapters in King Philip’s War: the forced removal of Nipmuc and other Eastern Algonquian peoples from their homes to Deer Island in Boston Harbor, where they were confined during the winter of 1675–1676. Many of them died on that windswept spot and in other episodes of that colonial crisis, the Northeast’s “great watershed.” Giant digester eggs of a sewage treatment plant overshadow Deer Island today, and the land gives scant testimony to the island’s calamitous past. Yet memories of this violence were unquestionably alive that frigid October day, animating an unprecedented though long-coming reclamation of indigenous geographies altered but not erased by centuries of cross-cultural struggle. As the mishoonash pushed through the waves, they were more than maritime curiosities. They were politically charged agents of decolonization, making a provocative statement to Boston and transforming its urban heart into native space.1

Occupation Heritage, Commemoration and Memory in Guernsey and Jersey

In the British Channel Islands today, the German Occupation of World War II and its heritage have an important place in the history, identity and psyche of islanders. This is reflected in the number of restored bunkers and Occupation museums, the popularity of Liberation Day, and the growing number of Occupation memorials in the islands. This article examines the history of the treatment of Occupation heritage in the Channel Islands over the last 65 years, focusing on sites of memory and counter-memory, victims of Nazi persecution, and the changing commemorative master narratives.

The Forgotten War

The island of Cyprus plays host to one of the world's last enduring armistices. While the resolution of Cyprus's status has plagued UN and EU diplomats for years, much remains misunderstood about the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and its context. The Greek Cypriots, far from the Greek mainland, had a better chance of holding out than might have first been thought. But errors in strategy gave Turkey the opportunity to build up an irresistible force on the island and set today's de facto internal border.

The maximal body mass-area relationship in island mammals

Aim A positive power relationship between maximal body mass and land area has previously been reported of the form Mmax ∝ Area0.5 whilst allometric scaling theory predicts either Mmax ∝ Area1.33 or Mmax ∝ Area1. We provide an analysis of the maximal mass–area relationship for four island systems, to test the hypothesis that community relaxation following isolation converges in each case to a slope of Area0.5. Location Islands of the Japanese archipelago, the western Mediterranean, the Sea of Cortes and Southeast Asia. Methods We calculated the relationship between island area and the maximal body mass of the largest mammal species on the island using linear regression models with log-transformed variables, and tested the hypothesis that the slopes were not significantly different from 0.5. Results We found a slope of 0.47 within the Japanese archipelago, 0.42 for western Mediterranean islands, 0.73 for the Sea of Cortes islands and 0.50 for Southeast Asian islands. None of these slopes were significantly different from 0.5. Main conclusions Our results provide further empirical support for previous findings of a general maximal body mass–area relationship of Mmax ∝ Area0.5, but they deviate from theoretical predictions. We hypothesize that this mass–area relationship was the ultimate end point of community relaxation initiated by the isolation of the mammal communities. Maximal body mass on each island today probably reflects the interaction between energetic constraints, home range size and island area.

A cautionary tale: a study of the macro bivalve and gastropod molluscan fauna of Spectacle Island, Sydney Harbour

Located in the Parramatta, Sydney Harbour, about 10 kilometres upstream from South Head, Spectacle Island today is a broadly equilateral triangular shaped man-modified outcrop of Hawkesbury sandstone and filled ground. Almost equidistant from Pulpit Rock to the NNW 400 metres, Cockatoo Island to the E 300metres, Drummoyne Peninsula to the SW 300 metres, and Snapper Island to the SE 400 metres, of the original outline of the island only fragments remain. There are the rock platforms and beaches at the NE extremity and the SE corner. It is a very different island today to that sighted by Captain (later Governor) John Hunter and First Lieutenant William Bradley of HMS Sirius, on 3 February, 1788. The first description is that of John Hunter, who was undertaking exploration work for Governor Arthur Phillip, and decided to camp on Spectacle Island that night due to the presence on the mainland of large numbers of “natives”, many of whom had never seen a white man. Hunter writes in his diary: “It was a fairly unattractive place: ... two flat rock platforms, covered with scrub and divided by an isthmus 55 yards. The total area was less than 2 acres.”

Weichselian and Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of the Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island, New Siberian Archipelago, Arctic Siberia

Cryolithological, ground ice and fossil bioindicator (pollen, diatoms, plant macrofossils, rhizopods, insects, mammal bones) records from Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island permafrost sequences (73°20′N, 141°30′E) document the environmental history in the region for the past c. 115 kyr. Vegetation similar to modern subarctic tundra communities prevailed during the Eemian/Early Weichselian transition with a climate warmer than the present. Sparse tundra‐like vegetation and harsher climate conditions were predominant during the Early Weichselian. The Middle Weichselian deposits contain peat and peaty soil horizons with bioindicators documenting climate amelioration. Although dwarf willows grew in more protected places, tundra and steppe vegetation prevailed. Climate conditions became colder and drier c. 30 kyr BP. No sediments dated between c. 28.5 and 12.05 14C kyr BP were found, which may reflect active erosion during that time. Herb and shrubby vegetation were predominant 11.6–11.3 14C kyr BP. Summer temperatures were c. 4 °C higher than today. Typical arctic environments prevailed around 10.5 14C kyr BP. Shrub alder and dwarf birch tundra were predominant between c. 9 and 7.6 kyr BP. Reconstructed summer temperatures were at least 4 °C higher than present. However, insect remains reflect that steppe‐like habitats existed until c. 8 kyr BP. After 7.6 kyr BP, shrubs gradually disappeared and the vegetation cover became similar to that of modern tundra. Pollen and beetles indicate a severe arctic environment c. 3.7 kyr BP. However, Betula nana, absent on the island today, was still present. Together with our previous study on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island covering the period between about 200 and 115 kyr, a comprehensive terrestrial palaeoenvironmental data set from this area in western Beringia is now available for the past two glacial–interglacial cycles.

Native Hawaiian Decolonization and the Politics of Gender

Unbeknownst to most Americans—and even those within American studies—there is a thriving independence movement taking place in the Hawaiian Islands today. It was borne out of an unlawful U.S.backed overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893, and is currently in opposition to a proposal for U.S. federal recognition of a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity, which would transform Hawaiians’ political status in damaging ways. U.S. senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) first proposed the legislation in 2000 to recognize Hawaiians as “Native Americans” with a political trust relationship to the United States—similar to that of American Indians. 1 Akaka’s initiative followed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Rice v. Cayetano that found Native Hawaiian–only voting in trustee elections for the state’s Office of Hawaiian Affairs to be unconstitutional. 2 Even though the ruling was made only on the basis of the Fifteenth Amendment, state programs and federal funding targeting Native Hawaiians are under threat by lawsuits challenging their legitimacy on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection. But none of those suits has met with success in the courts; what they have managed to do is terrify Native Hawaiians, especially the poorest—some of whom live on Hawaiian Home Lands (congressionally allotted homesteads), while others survive on the beaches. Senator Akaka and proponents of the federal proposal argue that this status change would offer protection against these constitutional challenges and afford Native Hawaiians the rights currently accorded other indigenous peoples in the United States, albeit precariously. However, the legislative proposal paves the way for the global settlement of outstanding Hawaiian land claims and further undercuts the right to selfdetermination under international law protocols for decolonization. When one looks at the history of U.S. federal recognition for indigenous domestic dependent nations, it is clear that there are some guarantees that would come along with the passage of the bill. These include extinguishing the Hawaiian people’s title to the Hawaiian Kingdom Crown and Government Lands—a title that heretofore has not been relinquished, as acknowledged

The Canaries: an important biogeographical meeting place

The Canaries: an important biogeographical meeting place

Forty Years Later: What Have We Learned about the Earliest Human Occupations of Santa Rosa Island, California?

California's Channel Islands have emerged as an important location for documenting the cultures and lifeways of the earliest peoples who settled the Pacific Coast of North America. Much of this began with Phil Orr's archaeological, paleontological, and geological research on Santa Rosa Island from the 1940s to 1960s. Generating several controversial theories, including the possibility of mammoth hunters on the islands over 40,000 years ago, many of Orr's interpretations have not stood the test of scientific scrutiny. However, much of what we know about the island today is based on Orr's extensive archaeological survey and excavation work. Here we provide an overview and analysis of Orr's research on the earliest peoples of Santa Rosa Island and update what has been learned in the 40 years since Orr's (1968) Prehistory of Santa Rosa Island was published. In 1968, Orr tentatively identified seven archaeological sites dating to the terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene, all located on the northwest coast of Santa Rosa. Today, at least 18 sites are known to date within this same time range and their distribution has been expanded to other areas of the island. Current data show that Santa Rosa Island has one of the longest records of coastal occupation in the Americas, beginning at least 13,000 calendar years ago and extending into historic times.

A RARE GLIMPSE AT THE EFFICACY OF PRIMAQUINE

Primaquine, the only tool in our drug toolbox for preventing relapse of Plasmodium vivax or P. ovale malaria, may be the most enigmatic of the most commonly prescribed drugs today. Despite more than 50 years of continuous use by millions of people each year, we do not understand how it works. Its complex metabolism generates a dozen known metabolites, and none of these has been definitively linked either to its potent activity against hypnozoites or to its hemolytic toxicity to people having an inborn deficiency of glucose-6phosphate dehydrogenase. The drug is a poster child for neglect of basic and applied research bearing directly upon one of the most prevalent parasitic infections of the tropics. How many common infections in the developed world have only a single therapy available, and one that has been around for more than 50 years? How many of those therapies have unknown mechanisms of activity? Even worse, is there any therapy prescribed against developed world infections that we do not know if the drug is actually working? The current efficacy of primaquine against relapses by P. vivax malaria, proven more than 50 years ago in clinical trials, is almost completely unknown. The evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy of primaquine against relapse has long been in the “too hard to do box.” And it is hard. Plasmodium vivax malaria presents daunting confounders, as well as logistical and ethical obstacles against evaluating drugs preventing relapse. Molecular markers to distinguish relapse from either reinfection or recrudescence provide only ambiguities. Chloroquine as a companion blood schizonticide may not be relied upon to clear the bloodstream of parasites where resistance to it occurs, and its lingering blood levels may effectively clear chloroquine-sensitive parasites emerging from primaquine-resistant relapses. Finally, a series of early clinical trials suggested primaquine might require chloroquine or quinine to achieve its potent killing of formed hypnozoites. There is no validated procedure for demonstrating resistance to primaquine, but it would look something like this: primaquine administered with quinine under direct supervision of subjects who must be followed for at least 60 days in areas where reinfection is highly unlikely. Moreover, the natural relapse rate for the area would have to be known beforehand, or, ideally, evaluated in randomized fashion in people receiving only quinine therapy. This approach, in my hands, consistently failed to clear ethical committees in Indonesia and the work was never done. Another approach, experimental challenge of human subjects, faces perhaps less daunting ethical challenges but imposes relatively huge costs. Epidemiology offers another approach to examining the efficacy of primaquine. Twelve years ago in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Jelinek and others published a study of primaquine therapy among European travelers with P. vivax malaria. Their data showed a 12-fold higher risk of relapse after standard primaquine therapy among travelers who acquired their infections in New Guinea, and thus offered perhaps the first external validation of the notion that the primaquine-tolerant Chesson strain of P. vivax from New Guinea (isolated in 1944) may actually be representative of strains occurring on that island today. In this issue of the journal, Goller and others report the results of a meta-analysis of 11 randomized clinical trials and 9 observational studies of primaquine therapy against relapse by P. vivax conducted over the past 17 years. They divided the studies geographically and demonstrate substantially higher risk of primaquine failure in Thailand compared with India or Brazil, but in any location the efficacy of standard primaquine therapy (total adult dose 210 mg base) was approximately 80%. This finding offers perhaps the most substantial justification of the recent recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to adopt a total adult dose of 420 mg base as standard therapy against relapse. Moreover, their findings also offer substantiation of the sentiment among practitioners that the commonly prescribed total adult dose of primaquine (whether 210 or 420 mg) may be inadequate for people who weigh substantially more than 60 kg. Their findings offer a sound basis for the recent recommendation to administer a total dose of 6 mg/kg (30 mg base/day) for as long as the patient’s weight dictates dosing. This analysis, although not free of potential confounding factors, provides an all too rare glimpse at the performance of the only drug we have for preventing relapse of P. vivax malaria.

Rock to Riches: The Revegetation of Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot Island, the most southern Great Barrier Reef island, has experienced a remarkable renewal of terrestrial biodiversity over the past 35 years. This has been driven largely by revegetation of the island, after it was denuded by guano mining to the point where little fl ora remained. The island today has signifi cant vegetation cover that supports a multitude of bird life and other fauna. This paper shows that the vegetation recovery is partly due to the hands-on approach to environmental management enabled by establishment of a small resort facility. In addition, the resort obtains fresh water by desalination, and its greywater residue signifi cantly enhances the freshwater available to support plant growth.

Valletta

This profile examines the position of Valletta at the heart of a metropolitan region and as capital of Malta as a small island state. The development of the dense polycentric region is outlined, and this provides a context for a summary of the key strategic issues facing the Maltese Islands today, as well as describing some examples of the responses that are being made to address them. The development of the current institutional framework for strategic planning and environmental management is explained in relation to its origins as a discretionary system, and as it is responding to the distinctive Maltese and emerging European scenes. The “compression of scales” between national policy and local interest in Malta is explored and insights for governance in city regions are explored.

Recent trends in Sri Lankan Buddhism

The South Asian island of Sri Lanka continues to be an important field site for the study of contemporary Buddhism. Numerous scholars in the field of religion base their arguments about the modern rise of Buddhist revivalism and fundamentalism on ethnographic data from Sri Lanka's long tradition of Theravāda Buddhism. This article, based on fieldwork in Colombo during summer 2002, serves to update previous knowledge on Sri Lankan Buddhism by reporting on newer developments in this religious tradition. I argue that many of the recent trends in Sri Lankan Buddhism are linked in part to broader political and economic realities observed in the island today.

Swimming Against the Tide

A variety of Romance has been spoken on Jersey for some two thousand years. However Jèrriais, the Norman dialect spoken on the Island today, is now obsolescent. Its decline in fortune has recently prompted a number of corpus and status planning initiatives which, largely devoid of State support, lie in the hands of a small, non-linguistically trained, group of enthusiasts. This paper examines the different agencies of language planning on Jersey and the progress they have made hitherto, comparing the corpus and status planning undertaken in this context with that which occurs in countries where more support is forthcoming from the State, and situating the position of Jèrriais within the contemporary language planning literature. It also suggests some possible avenues for the future and discusses the factors which are likely to determine the success or otherwise of the outcome. The paper highlights the fact that, by themselves, high-prestige domains such as the school do not necessarily hold the key to successful language maintenance.

Stream insects and gastropods in the island of Gran Canaria (Spain)

The current status of the stream-living insects and gastropods of the island of Gran Canaria in the Atlantic Canary Islands is documented. Data from semiquantitative kick samples taken in 11 streams are supplemented by non-standardized collecting in the same and ten additional streams. The kick samples included some 9,000 specimens of 98 taxa, and in total 123 taxa were recorded from the studied streams in 1994 and 1995. The stream fauna was dominated by Diptera with some 80 taxa, followed by Coleoptera with 37 species known from the island. The kick samples yielded 11-36 species per stream and visit, whereas up to 48 species were scored when all collecting methods were included. Local diversity given as Fisher's α ranged from 3.2 to 10.3. Clustering showed only weak spatial patterns and resulted in much higher similarities among localities when based on the semiquantitative samples than when based on presence/absence including records from all collecting methods. Species distributions among localities were not significantly nested. The faunal similarity with the adjacent island of Tenerife is striking. Six of the Tenerife species are seemingly absent from Gran Canaria, whereas Gran Canaria has 13 species not found in Tenerife. Most of the 22 aquatic insect species in Gran Canaria only known from older records, prefer lentic habitats not included in our study. All except one of the five species endemic to Gran Canaria are considered extinct or on the edge of extinction. Increased future extinction rates are predicted as a response of the extreme habitat loss, with only three permanent streams known on the island today.