Small Remote Islands Research Articles

Paying the pilot? The economics of subsidising international air travel to small remote island nations with large diaspora

The tourism-air transport linkage may be complicated by the presence of substantial non-tourist leisure travel flows. This paper analyses the value of direct long-haul air service to Los Angeles for two small South Pacific nations, Tonga and the Cook Islands, which were faced with demands that they subsidise the current service to ensure its continuation. Both countries are tourist destinations, but both also have sizeable diaspora of economic emigrants living abroad, which generate considerable visiting friends and relatives traffic. It turns out that the economics of this travel are quite different from those relating to foreign tourism, such that it is possible that Tonga could actually lose by having the long-haul service. The bottom line is that the Cook Islands do gain, and that Tonga probably does, though in both cases by less than the amount of subsidies that they agreed to pay the airline.

Demonstration Tests of Microgrid Systems for Small Remote Islands

Demonstration Tests of Microgrid Systems for Small Remote Islands

Collapse and recovery in a remote small island—A tale of adaptive cycles or downward spirals?

Few studies consider how social-ecological systems recover from disturbance. We consider the small semi-autonomous island of Rodrigues (Indian Ocean). Based on semi-structured interviews ( n = 70), a fisher survey ( n = 73), weather data and official records we build a timeline of key events. We tabulate local perceptions (5+ mentions) of changes (social, economic and natural capital) and look for signs of adaptive cycles in the island's social-ecological past. Rising human pressure and extreme weather event impacts are reported since first settlement. We propose a recent “collapse” phase catalysed in the 1970s by severe drought, based on respondents’ perceptions of still-ongoing changes in farming and fishing, water, external dependence, migration and inter-island political change. Connectivity (flows of people, goods, information, money, power) appear to have strengthed local island recovery, but degradation continued, not least due to water scarcity and a lack of shared political vision as Rodrigues became more tied into the wider world. Overall, our findings suggest social-ecological systems may get stuck in a post-collapse recovery without any new structure emerging, presuming adaptive cycles can even be detected. Data gaps and global change redefining spatial and temporal scales could mean the adaptive cycle's usefulness is limited in development policy-making contexts.

How Island Geography and Shape may Influence Species Rarity and Biodiversity Loss in a Relict Fauna: A Case Study of Mediterranean Beetles

In accordance with their relictual character, the tenebrionid communities of the Aegean Islands appear scarcely affected by present geographic characteristics. Three measures of rarity at community level were calculated: geographic distribution, habitat exploitation, and population size. Islands with greater habitat diversity and size are those with higher values of distributional rarity. Island shape appears to be correlated with habitat exploitation and population size rarities: the communities with highest proportions of ecologically specialized and scarce species are associated with islands with lower perimeter/area ratios (which possibly lack extensive 'inner' habitats, like forests), while an elongate island shape exerts a positive influence on the incidence of species with small populations (possibly because of an increasing habitat diversity in elongate areas which may support K-selected species). On the whole, islands with a more elongated shape are those with the most vulnerable species. A paleogeographical and paleoecological model is proposed to explain present patterns of rarity. As a result of relaxation after saturation, remote small islands retained generally the most common (less vulnerable) species, rare species surviving mostly on the larger islands, although ecologically specialized species can be concentrated on some small islands, if these species are associated with peculiar but locally common habitats. The multi- dimensional representation of community rarity presented in this study provided important insights into our understanding of the biogeographic mechanisms which may be involved in biodiversity loss.

A Novel Point Mutation Affecting the Tyrosine Kinase Domain of the TRKA Gene in a Family with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis

A nerve growth factor receptor encoded by the TRKA gene plays an important part in the formation of autonomic neurons and small sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglia and in signal transduction through its intracytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain. Recently, three mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of TRKA have been reported in patients with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, which is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by recurrent fever due to absence of sweating, no reaction to noxious stimuli, self-mutilating behavior, and mental retardation. We examined the TRKA gene in five generations of a large Japanese family with many consanguineous marriages who live in a small remote island of the southern part of Japan. We found a novel point mutation at nucleotide 1825 (A-->G transition) resulting in Met-581-Val in the tyrosine kinase domain. Two of the three affected patients were homozygous for this mutation; however, the third affected patient was heterozygous. Further analysis revealed that the third patient was a compound heterozygote with the Met-581-Val mutation in one allele and with a single base C deletion mutation at nucleotide 1726 in exon 14 in the other allele, resulting in a frameshift and premature termination codon.

Tikopia Songs: Poetic and Musical Art of a Polynesian People of the Solomon Islands

Sir Raymond Firth is one of the most distinguished British anthropologists, and one internationally acclaimed. His work here forms part of one of the fullest and most professional ethnographic accounts by any anthropologist of a non-industrial people, an account which extends over many years. This book is about the songs of a Western Pacific people, the Tikopia, who not so long ago lived entirely on a small remote island of the Solomons. Their songs vary from lively dance chants to mournful funeral laments. All are novel to western ears. The book provides about 100 examples, in text and translation. It also discusses the relation of the songs to the social life of the people, and it includes an analysis of the structure of their music, by Mervyn McLean, a noted musicologist.

Late Holocene glacier variations and climate at Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen is a small (373 km2) remote island in the Norwegian Sea. One third of it is covered by glaciers, all located on the Beerenberg volcano. There have been at least two Holocene periods of glacier expansion at Jan Mayen. The first may have taken place around 2500 B.P. Some glaciers had their maximum extent during the second period, around 1850 A.D. They have subsequently shown an oscillating retreat, with marked expansion around 1910, and with a minimum extent around 1950. Many glaciers advanced again around 1960. The advance of Scbreen probably culminated around 1965. The climate appears to have been more arctic-continental than today during these two periods of glacier advances, caused by expanded pack ice cover in the East Greenland current and strong influence from the Greenland-Arctic high pressure area. The interplay between the high pressure area and the low pressure tracks in the North Atlantic Ocean determines the climate over the north-western part of the Atlantic, and this results in parallel climate and glacier variations within this region. We conclude, contrary to previous reports, that the advances of the glaciers around 1960 were caused by reduced summer temperatures and ablation, and not by increased precipitation.

Airship Access for Small Remote Island Communities

Airship Access for Small Remote Island Communities

Late Holocene glacier variations and climate at Jan Mayen

Jan Mayen is a small (373 km2) remote island in the Norwegian Sea. One third of it is covered by glaciers, all located on the Beerenberg volcano. There have been at least two Holocene periods of glacier expansion at Jan Mayen. The first may have taken place around 2500 B.P. Some glaciers had their maximum extent during the second period, around 1850 A.D. They have subsequently shown an oscillating retreat, with marked expansion around 1910, and with a minimum extent around 1950. Many glaciers advanced again around 1960. The advance of Scbreen probably culminated around 1965. The climate appears to have been more arctic-continental than today during these two periods of glacier advances, caused by expanded pack ice cover in the East Greenland current and strong influence from the Greenland-Arctic high pressure area. The interplay between the high pressure area and the low pressure tracks in the North Atlantic Ocean determines the climate over the north-western part of the Atlantic, and this results in parallel climate and glacier variations within this region. We conclude, contrary to previous reports, that the advances of the glaciers around 1960 were caused by reduced summer temperatures and ablation, and not by increased precipitation.