North Atlantic Islands Research Articles

Investigating annual and monthly trends in precipitation structure: an overview across Portugal

Abstract. This work investigates recent changes in precipitation patterns manifested in long annual and monthly precipitation time series recorded in Portugal. The dataset comprises records from 14 meteorological stations scattered over mainland Portugal and the Portuguese North Atlantic Islands of Madeira and Azores; some of the time series date back to the 19th century. The data were tested for trends using the Mann-Kendall non-parametric test and Sen's non-parametric method, searching both for full monotonic trends over the record period and for partial trends. Results provide no evidence for rejecting the null hypothesis of no trend in annual precipitation, when a monotonic linear model was used. Nevertheless, the analyses of 50 years' moving averages showed an increase over time, in the recent past, for many of the series in mainland Portugal and the Islands. For the longest time series this behaviour was preceded by a decrease over time. The analyses of partial trends in the time series suggested a sequence of alternately decreasing and increasing trends in annual and monthly precipitation, which are sometimes statistically significant. The trend changing points were identified.

Influence of anthropogenic combustion emissions on the deposition of soluble aerosol iron to the ocean: Empirical estimates for island sites in the North Atlantic

The results of several recent studies challenge the reigning paradigm that continental soil dust provides the only significant atmospheric source of dissolved iron to the surface ocean. This evidence includes correlations between the operational solubility of aerosol iron and atmospheric loadings of black carbon and aluminum-normalized vanadium and nickel, each of which are associated with emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel oil. These observations suggest that the relative solubility of aerosol iron, hence the eolian flux of soluble iron to the surface ocean, may be significantly impacted by anthropogenic oil combustion products. Using recent field data from the Bermuda region, we have developed an empirical method to estimate the solubility of aerosol iron using bulk aerosol concentrations of Fe, V and Al. We apply this method to a large body of published data from the AEROCE program for North Atlantic island sites on Tenerife, Barbados, Bermuda and Ireland, where the relative proportions of anthropogenic aerosols range from minor to major, respectively. Our aerosol iron solubility estimates suggest that anthropogenic emissions contribute approximately 70% and 85% of the annual dry deposition of soluble iron to the surface ocean near Bermuda and Ireland, respectively, implying that human activities have profoundly affected the iron budget of the North Atlantic region. The annual mean dry deposition of soluble iron at Barbados and Izana is dominated by soil dust. The anthropogenic contribution at these two sites ranges from 12% to 30% and is highly dependent on the soil dust solubility of Fe employed in the model. The low end (∼12%) estimate appears to be more representative of these high-dust sites.

The Perception and Interpretation of Hanseatic Material Culture in the North Atlantic: Problems and Suggestions

This paper takes the discussion on the concept of Hanseatic material culture from the Baltic and moves it west towards the North Atlantic islands and Norway, focusing on the contact zones between Hanse traders and societies at the fringes of northern Europe. The peoples of this area conducted considerable exchange with the Germans during the 14th through the 17th centuries, a process which could have led to significant impacts on the native cultures. This study describes artifacts produced in northern Germany and imported to the north as a medium transporting culture, and points out the many complex problems in tracing artifact distribution in northern Europe that are caused by multilateral and illegal trade, piracy, and the involvement of third parties. With the help of archaeological methods, the second part of the paper attempts to address some of those issues by suggesting a classification of Hanseatic artifacts.

Sustainability and Resilience in Prehistoric North Atlantic Britain: The Importance of a Mixed Paleoeconomic System

Abstract The two archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, which form the Northern Isles of Britain, are an active focus of archaeological research. The rich Neolithic heritage of Orkney has been acknowledged by the granting of World Heritage status. Although set in both a biogeographically peripheral position and within what may be considered to be marginal landscapes, these North Atlantic islands have a large number of settlement sites with long occupational sequences, often stretching from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age or into the Norse period. The mixed paleoeconomic strategy presented by three of these settlements—Tofts Ness, Sanday, Orkney (excavated 1985–1988); the Iron Age sequences at Old Scatness, Shetland (excavated 1995–2006); and Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultivated middens from Jarlshof, Shetland (investigated in 2004)—provide the core of the evidence discussed within this paper (the radiocarbon chronologies for the key sequences from these three sites are provided as Appendix 1). The ro...

A multilocus assay reveals high nucleotide diversity and limited differentiation among Scandinavian willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus)

BackgroundThere is so far very little data on autosomal nucleotide diversity in birds, except for data from the domesticated chicken and some passerines species. Estimates of nucleotide diversity reported so far in birds have been high (~10-3) and a likely explanation for this is the generally higher effective population sizes compared to mammals. In this study, the level of nucleotide diversity has been examined in the willow grouse, a non-domesticated bird species from the order Galliformes, which also holds the chicken. The willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus) has an almost circumpolar distribution but is absent from Greenland and the north Atlantic islands. It primarily inhabits tundra, forest edge habitats and sub-alpine vegetation. Willow grouse are hunted throughout its range, and regionally it is a game bird of great cultural and economical importance.ResultsWe sequenced 18 autosomal protein coding loci from approximately 15–18 individuals per population. We found a total of 127 SNP's, which corresponds to 1 SNP every 51 bp. 26 SNP's were amino acid replacement substitutions. Total nucleotide diversity (πt) was between 1.30 × 10-4 and 7.66 × 10-3 (average πt = 2.72 × 10-3 ± 2.06 × 10-3) and silent nucleotide diversity varied between 4.20 × 10-4and 2.76 × 10-2 (average πS = 9.22 × 10-3 ± 7.43 × 10-4). The synonymous diversity is approximately 20 times higher than in humans and two times higher than in chicken. Non-synonymous diversity was on average 18 times lower than the synonymous diversity and varied between 0 and 4.90 × 10-3 (average πa = 5.08 × 10-4 ± 7.43 × 103), which suggest that purifying selection is strong in these genes. FST values based on synonymous SNP's varied between -5.60 × 10-4 and 0.20 among loci and revealed low levels of differentiation among the four localities, with an overall value of FST = 0.03 (95% CI: 0.006 – 0.057) over 60 unlinked loci. Non-synonymous SNP's gave similar results. Low levels of linkage disequilibrium were observed within genes, with an average r2 = 0.084 ± 0.110, which is expected for a large outbred population with no population differentiation. The mean per site per generation recombination parameter (ρ) was comparably high (0.028 ± 0.018), indicating high recombination rates in these genes.ConclusionWe found unusually high levels of nucleotide diversity in the Scandinavian willow grouse as well as very little population structure among localities with up to 1647 km distance. There are also low levels of linkage disequilibrium within the genes and the population recombination rate is high, which is indicative of an old panmictic population, where recombination has had time to break up any haplotype blocks. The non-synonymous nucleotide diversity is low compared with the silent, which is in agreement with effective purifying selection, possibly due to the large effective population size.

Dual-foraging of Cory’s shearwaters in the Azores: feeding locations, behaviour at sea and implications for food provisioning of chicks

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 359:283-293 (2008) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07340 Dual-foraging of Cory’s shearwaters in the Azores: feeding locations, behaviour at sea and implications for food provisioning of chicks M. C. Magalhães1,2,*, R. S. Santos2, K. C. Hamer1 1Faculty of Biological Sciences and Earth Biosphere Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK 2 Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, University of the Azores, 9901-862 Horta, Faial, Portugal *Email: mmagalhaes@uac.pt ABSTRACT: Many procellariiform (tube-nosed) seabirds employ a dual-foraging strategy involving repeated alternation of short and long foraging trips. For species breeding at sites around the Southern Ocean, long trips typically extend to areas of enhanced productivity at great distance from the nest. Evidence concerning the use of such areas during dual-foraging in other oceanographic regions is, however, limited. The present study examines the foraging strategy, locations and behaviour at sea of Cory’s shearwaters in the Azores, a chain of 9 islands and associated islets in 3 groups straddling the mid-Atlantic ridge (MAR) in the North Atlantic Ocean. Adults used a dual-foraging strategy with an average of 3 short (1 to 4 d) trips followed by a long trip of up to 20 d (average 9 d). Short trips were evenly distributed around breeding sites within an average range of 75 km, whereas long trips without exception headed north of the Azores and extended up to 1800 km from the nest. Core foraging areas for long trips were within apparent regions of enhanced productivity resulting from cold water upwelling along the MAR north of the colony (for birds from the central Azores) or over the western flank of the MAR northwest of the colony (for birds from the western Azores). On long trips from all 3 island groups birds also visited an additional area of enhanced productivity in the region of Flemish Cap, close to the North American continental shelf edge. Birds commuted to and from distant foraging sites relatively quickly (25 km h–1 on average), but individual parents did not co-ordinate their foraging activity to reduce the frequency of nights when chicks were unfed. As a result, chicks experienced much longer intervals between feeds (up to 9 nights) than conspecifics at other North Atlantic islands in the absence of dual-foraging (maximum 4 nights). However, chicks in the Azores received much larger meals when they were fed, and so the overall food provisioning rate (g d–1) was similar to that recorded elsewhere. KEY WORDS: Calonectris diomedea · Wildlife telemetry · Seamounts · Geolocation · Home range · Optimal foraging Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Magalhães MC, Santos RS, Hamer KC (2008) Dual-foraging of Cory’s shearwaters in the Azores: feeding locations, behaviour at sea and implications for food provisioning of chicks. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 359:283-293. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07340 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 359. Online publication date: May 05, 2008 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2008 Inter-Research.

The Possible Advantage of Living in Turf Houses on Settlement Mounds

Before timber and stone houses were introduced to northern regions, varieties of turf houses were the most commonly used architecture. These houses had a wooden structure encapsulated in a shell constructed of grass turf. The different ethnic groups of the north built their houses in different styles and constructions, but the general principle was the same. The Norse of North Norway and also on the North Atlantic islands had a tendency to build their houses on top of the ruins of previous houses. After a few centuries this arrangement produced a settlement mound of highly organic soil. In the research literature, both the turf architecture and the settlement mounds have been described as adaptations to and a function of marginality and lack of timber. This paper reports an effort to test the idea that turf houses on top of settlement mounds may have been a finely tuned ecological system that made use of the capacity of organic soil to produce heat.

Early Holocene terrestrial climatic variability along a North Atlantic Island transect: palaeoceanographic implications

A synthesis of the early Holocene climatic development in the North Atlantic region is presented, based on three previously published lake records from southern Greenland (Lake N14), Iceland (Lake Torfadalsvatn) and the Faroe Islands (Lake Lykkjuvøtn). The interval 11 500–8500 cal BP has been divided into five phases with respect to the inferred strength of the North Atlantic Current (NAC) and Irminger Currents (IC). Phase 1 (11 500–10 750 cal BP) was characterised by the first establishment of the NAC and IC in the vicinity of the studied sites, interrupted by the Preboreal Oscillation around 11 200 cal BP. Phase 2 (10 750–10 100 cal BP) was marked by a further warming step in southern Greenland rather concordant with a change into colder and more variable winters on the Faroe Islands. It is proposed that this could partly be related to a series of melt water outbursts disturbing the thermohaline circulation in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a warming trend in the western region. During Phase 3 (10 100–9400 cal BP) the strength of the IC reaching northwestern Iceland intensified. A more stable regime in surface circulation was established at the onset of Phase 4 (9400–8900 cal BP) in southern Greenland and was followed by a change towards further warm conditions on Iceland at the onset of Phase 5 (8900–8500 cal BP).

A revision of the systematics of panther worms (Hofstenia spp., Acoela), with notes on color variation and genetic variation within the genus

Species of the genus Hofstenia are voracious predators and among the largest and most colorful of the Acoela. They are known from Japan, the Red Sea, the North Atlantic islands of Bermuda and the Bahamas, and the Caribbean and in a variety of habitats including the rocky intertidal, among Thalassia sea grass, on filamentous algae and decaying mangrove leaves. Certain color morphs associated with each of these habitats seem to have confused the taxonomy of the group. While brown-and-white banding and spotting patterns of Hofstenia miamia and Hofstenia giselae are distinctive for species associated with mangrove leaves and Thallasia sp. and are likely to be cryptic for these specific environments, we find some evidence to suggest that the coloration is mimicry of a nudibranch with aposematic coloration. The common plan in these patterns is one with three variously solid or spotted lighter cross bands on a dark background. Our examination of museum type material and live specimens of Hofstenia collected from Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, and Panama revealed no internal morphological differences between the Hofstenia species occurring in the Caribbean. Similarly, our analyses of 18S and 28S molecular sequence data revealed no significant differences among specimens. Accordingly, we declare that Hofstenia giselae is a junior synonym of Hofstenia miamia, the three-banded panther worm.

Cryptic intercontinental colonization in water fleas Daphnia pulicaria inferred from phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA variation

The water fleas of the Daphnia pulex complex play a key role in freshwater ecosystems throughout the northern hemisphere. Despite the fact that they have been the subject of study for numerous biological disciplines, their phylogeny and species delimitation remain controversial. We used DNA sequence variation of the mitochondrial ND5 gene to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of D. pulicaria Forbes, a widespread member of this complex from North America and Europe. Populations from the two continents respectively split into two evolutionary lineages, Eastern Nearctic and European, which each belong to another main clade within the D. pulex complex (the pulicaria and tenebrosa groups, respectively). Unexpectedly, melanin and carotenoid pigmented D. pulicaria populations from European high-mountain lakes were not allied with the transparent populations inhabiting the same lakes and the lowland ponds and reservoirs throughout Europe, but were included with the samples from Canada and Greenland in the Eastern Nearctic lineage. Until now populations belonging to this lineage were known only from Canada and North Atlantic islands, but not from mainland Europe. Independent data from microsatellite markers supported the genetic distinctiveness of the sympatric carotenoid pigmented and transparent populations and suggested that they may have undergone transition to obligate parthenogenesis, possibly as a consequence of past introgressive hybridization. Two different taxa are therefore confused under the name D. pulicaria in Europe. The close phylogenetic relationships of European populations with those from Canada and Greenland suggest that the Nearctic lineage is of recent origin in Europe via intercontinental dispersal from the North America. It has evolved melanin and carotenoid pigmentation as adaptations against the UV light stress, which enable it to share habitat occupied by the transparent European species. The Nearctic D. pulicaria thus provides a new model for studying successful intercontinental invasion. In general, our study demonstrates that a considerable part of the diversity among widespread taxa of cladoceran crustaceans has been overlooked in morphological taxonomies.

Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change, Trade, and the Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands

Changing economies and patterns of trade, rather than climatic deterioration, could have critically marginalized the Norse Greenland settlements and effectively sealed their fate. Counter-intuitively, the end of Norse Greenland might not be symptomatic of a failure to adapt to environmental change, but a consequence of successful wider economic developments of Norse communities across North Atlantic. Data from Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and medieval Iceland is used to explore the interplay of Norse society with climate, environment, settlement, and other circumstances. Long term increases in vulnerability caused by economic change and cumulative climate changes sparked a cascading collapse of integrated interdependent settlement systems, bringing the end of Norse Greenland.

Charcoal Production During the Norse and Early Medieval Periods in Eyjafjallahreppur, Southern Iceland

Timber procurement and the use of woodlands are key issues in understanding the open landscapes of the Norse and Medieval periods in the North Atlantic islands. This paper outlines evidence for the timing and mechanisms of woodland use and deforestation in an area of southern Iceland, which is tracked through the mapping and analysis of charcoal production pits. Precise dating of the use of these charcoal production pits within a Bayesian framework is demonstrated through the combination of tephrochronology, sediment accumulation rates, and multiple radiocarbon dates on the archaeological charcoal. Two phases of charcoal production and woodland exploitation have been demonstrated, the first within the first 2 centuries of settlement (cal AD 870–1050) and the second phase over 100 yr later (cal AD 1185–1295). The implications for using charcoal as a medium for 14C dating in Iceland and the wider North Atlantic are then explored. Archaeobotanical analysis of the charcoal sampled from the pits has indicated that birch roundwood was the dominant wood used, that the roundwood was stripped from larger shrubs/trees in late spring/early summer, and that certain sizes and ages of roundwood were harvested. Finally, the timing of the charcoal production is placed into the wider debate on deforestation across Iceland during the Norse and early Medieval periods.

The Role of Climate in Settlement and Landscape Change in the North Atlantic Islands: An Assessment of Cumulative Deviations in High-Resolution Proxy Climate Records

In order to assess possible contributions of climate change to the human ecology of the North Atlantic islands we evaluate the utility of cumulative deviations from the mean, calculated for the Greenland ice core storm frequency proxy (GISP2 Na+) and sea ice proxy (GISP2 chloride excess). Our aim is to identify episodes of unpredictable change in the context of long-term trends of cultural and environmental development. Key changes are identified in the proxy climate records in 975 and 980 ad, 1025 and 1040 ad, 1180 ad, 1425 and 1450 ad, and 1520 and 1525 ad. Some of these changes are consistent with those inferred from new studies of the palaeoecological record of the Faroes. This indicates that the cumulative deviation measure could give greatest prominence to the most important climate changes affecting landscapes and settlement (such as the changes of 1425 and 1450 ad and their immediate aftermath), rather than extreme events, such as great single storms.

Nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent and atmospheric predictability research

Because atmosphere itself is a nonlinear system and there exist some problems using the linearized equations to study the initial error growth, in this paper we try to use the error nonlinear growth theory to discuss its evolution, based on which we first put forward a new concept: nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent. It is quite different from the classic Lyapunov exponent because it may characterize the finite time error local average growth and its value depends on the initial condition, initial error, variables, evolution time, temporal and spatial scales. Based on its definition and the at- mospheric features, we provide a reasonable algorithm to the exponent for the experimental data, obtain the atmospheric initial error growth in finite time and gain the maximal prediction time. Lastly, taking 500 hPa height field as example, we discuss the application of the nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent in the study of atmospheric predictability and get some reliable results: atmospheric pre- dictability has a distinct spatial structure. Overall, predictability shows a zonal distribution. Prediction time achieves the maximum over tropics, the second near the regions of Antarctic, it is also longer next to the Arctic and in subtropics and the mid-latitude the predictability is lowest. Particularly speaking, the average prediction time near the equation is 12 days and the maximum is located in the tropical Indian, Indonesia and the neighborhood, tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, on these regions the prediction time is about two weeks. Antarctic has a higher predictability than the neighboring latitudes and the prediction time is about 9 days. This feature is more obvious on Southern Hemispheric summer. In Arctic, the predictability is also higher than the one over mid-high latitudes but it is not pronounced as in Antarctic. Mid-high latitude of both Hemispheres (30°S―60°S, 30°―60°N) have the lowest predictability and the mean prediction time is just 3―4 d. In addition, predictability varies with the seasons. Most regions in the Northern Hemisphere, the predictability in winter is higher than that in summer, especially in the mid-high latitude: North Atlantic, North Pacific and Greenland Island. However in the Southern Hemisphere, near the Antarctic regions (60°S―90°S), the corresponding summer has higher predictability than its winter, while in other areas especially in the latitudes of 30°S―60°S, the prediction does not change obviously with the seasons and the average time is 3―5 d. Both the theoretical and data computation results show that nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent and the nonlinear local error growth really may measure the predictability of the atmospheric variables in different temporal and spatial scales.

Phylogeography of island canary (Serinus canaria) populations

Island canaries (Serinus canaria) are characterised as a species living exclusively on North Atlantic islands, mainly on the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands. Although they are very common in their habitats, their behaviour and breeding system has only recently been studied systematically. To advance the understanding of their ecology and to see if the rather isolated archipelagos are already promoting a genetic differentiation, we investigated their phylogeographic relationship as revealed by mtDNA sequences of the cytochrome b gene and investigated whether this measure corresponds to morphological characteristics within the islands. Genetic distances were very low throughout the distribution range of the species. Although the variation of genetic distances within the population of Pico (Azores) was larger than that on Madeira and Canary Islands, the genetic distances between island populations were very low throughout which prevented a clear phylogeographic differentiation. Moreover, morphological measurements did not reveal a consistent pattern to reliably separate the populations, although the measures of beak length and body weight revealed a clear island-specific differentiation. These data lead to the assumption that the colonisation of the Atlantic islands by the canaries occurred very recently, while there is no persisting gene flow between the populations.

Variability in North Atlantic marine radiocarbon reservoir effects at c. AD 1000

14C age measurements made on samples from three archaeological sites located on North Atlantic coasts were used to investigate the marine reservoir effect (MRE) at c.AD 1000. This is an important period within human cultural and palaeoenvironmental research as it is a time when Norse expansion to the North Atlantic islands occurred, during what appears to be a period of ameliorating climatic conditions. This makes improved chronological precision and accuracy at this time highly desirable. The data indicate a potential latitudinal variation in MRE at c. AD 1000 from a ΔR of-142±16 14C yr at Omey Island (53° 32' N) to 64±13 14C yr at Undir Junkarinsfløtti (61° 51' N). The results are compared with modern assessments of MRE values within the context of oceanographic and climatic regimes that provide a possible driving mechanism for spatial and temporal variation in MRE.

Origin of freshwater fauna of the North-Atlantic islands: present distribution in relation to climate and possible migration routes

Origin of freshwater fauna of the North-Atlantic islands: present distribution in relation to climate and possible migration routes

The Norse landnám on the North Atlantic islands: an environmental impact assessment

The Norse colonisation or landnám of the North Atlantic islands of the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland from the ninth century AD onwards provides opportunities to examine human environmental impacts on ‘pristine’ landscapes on an environmental gradient from warmer, more maritime conditions in the east to colder, more continental conditions in the west. This paper considers key environmental contrasts across the Atlantic and initial settlement impacts on the biota and landscape. Before landnám, the modes of origin of the biota (which resulted in boreo-temperate affinities), a lack of endemic species, limited diversity, and no grazing mammals on the Faroes or Iceland, were crucial in determining environmental sensitivity to human impact and, in particular, the impact of introduced domestic animals. Gathering new data and understanding their geographical patterns and changes through time are seen as crucial when tackling fundamental questions about human interactions with the environment, which are relevant to both understanding the past and planning for the future.

Phylogeography of Drosophila subobscura from north Atlantic islands inferred from mtDNA A + T rich region sequences

Drosophila subobscura has been used extensively in the past, in numerous studies focused on the colonization history of natural populations (Afonso et al., 1990; Brehm and Krimbas, 1987; Khadem et al., 1998; Krimbas, 1993; Latorre et al., 1992; Pascual et al., 2001; Pinto et al., 1997; Prevosti, 1974; Prevosti et al., 1984). A native Paleartic with circum-Mediterranean distribution, the species reaches the southern limits of its distribution in Morocco and is also present in the North Atlantic Archipelagos of Azores, Canaries and Madeira. In the two later archipelagos an ancestral lineage gave rise to the endemics Drosophila guanche and Drosophila madeirensis, respectively (Gonz alez et al., 1983; Gonzalez et al., 1990; Krimbas and Loukas, 1984; Moncl us, 1976, 1984) all together forming the subobscura cluster. A recent combined analysis of nucleotide sequences indicated that D. madeirensis is the sister taxa of Drosophila subobscura (O Grady, 1999) and this was supported by mtDNA A+T rich region sequences (Brehm et al., 2001). The vast geographical distribution of D. subobscura makes it an excellent species for phylogeographic studies assessing past colonization events. It is known that D. subobscura from Crete resembles much more populations from Israel and Tunisia than those from mainland Greece, probably due to the last European glaciation which did not extend into the Middle East and North Africa (Krimbas, 1993). Extant North Atlantic island populations are supposed to be long isolated from those of the mainland and were not

Heritage, Tourism and Museums: the case of the North Atlantic islands of Skye, Scotland and Prince Edward Island, Canada

Heritage tourism, and the products and experiences related to it, represent a growing attraction in international tourism and the museum is a potential partner in the development of heritage activities for tourists. This paper explores the relationship between tourism and museums and analyses their roles in relation to heritage. It recognises that the shared characteristics of tourism and museums provide a basis for the two to work together in the development of heritage tourism. This exploration is illustrated by the comparison of case studies of legislated museum provision and their relation to tourism on two North Atlantic islands. In conclusion, the paper argues that while in some cases museums may be seen as somewhat reluctant partners in the process of heritage tourism they are in fact constrained by traditional roles and responsibilities and influenced by both differing jurisdictional contexts and views as to their functions.