Community-based management fails to halt declines of bumphead parrotfish and humphead wrasse in Roviana Lagoon,Solomon Islands

Coral Reefs - Community-based fisheries management that integrates local knowledge and existing user rights is often seen as a solution to the failures of top-down fisheries management in the...     

Changing Ethnobotanical Knowledge of the Roviana People,Solomon Islands: Quantitative Approaches to its Correlation with Modernization

This study examines the acculturation of ethnobotanical knowledge in association with modernization by analyzing similarities and differences within a language group, the Roviana people of the Solomon Islands. Cultural consensus analysis and evaluation of either village-level or individual-level modernity were performed for seven villages. In one modernized and one less modernized village, detailed socioeconomic data at the individual level were collected. Intervillage variation of knowledge correlated with modernity only when the villages were referenced to the less modernized villages, while there was no correlation when the most modernized village was used as the base knowledge. An informant’s knowledge in the less modernized village was affected by socioeconomic factors, but this was not observed in the modernized village. From these results, I suggest that modern knowledge is easily integrated into the ethnobotanical knowledge system but is not directly related to the loss of indigenous botanical knowledge.     

Common Property Models of Sea Tenure: A Case Study from the Roviana and Vonavona Lagoons, New Georgia, Solomon Islands

In recent decades, Pacific Region indigenous sea tenure regimes have received considerable attention from social scientists who believe thatmarine-localized common entitlements and fishing practices can aid modern littoral fisheries management. The endorsement of sea tenure institutions as managerial tools, however, has proceeded without adequate consideration of their vulnerability to social and economic changes. The general view held by researchers is that Pacific Island sea tenure regimes are generally undermined by the influence of exogenous forces resulting in an open-access commons. In this article, it is argued that the contemporary transformation of sea tenure regimes emerges not only from exogenous agency, but from a complex set of autochthonous processes. A case study from New Georgia, Solomon Islands, is presented to show how sea tenure regimes can vary within an ethnically and culturally homogeneous region. Three tenure models are presented to show how different pre- and post-European contact regional settlement patterns, localized processes of political expansion and contraction, and dynamic indigenous sociocultural principles have resulted in institutional differences between each sea tenure model. The effect of the market economy on the organizational structure and managerial outcomes of each model also is discussed.     

Responses of algal communities to gradients in herbivore biomass and water quality in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands

Settlement tiles were used to characterise and quantify coral reef associated algal communities along water quality and herbivory gradients from terrestrial influenced near shore sites to oceanic passage sites in Marovo Lagoon, the Solomon Islands. After 6 months, settlement tile communities from inshore reefs were dominated by high biomass algal turfs (filamentous algae and cyanobacteria) whereas tiles located on offshore reefs were characterised by a mixed low biomass community of calcareous crustose algae, fleshy crustose algae and bare tile. The exclusion of macrograzers, via caging of tiles, on the outer reef sites resulted in the development of an algal turf community similar to that observed on inshore reefs. Caging on the inshore reef tiles had a limited impact on community composition or biomass. Water quality and herbivorous fish biomass were quantified at each site to elucidate factors that might influence algal community structure across the lagoon. Herbivore biomass was the dominant driver of algal community structure. Algal biomass on the other hand was controlled by both herbivory and water quality (particularly dissolved nutrients). This study demonstrates that algal communities on settlement tiles are an indicator capable of integrating the impacts of water quality and herbivory over a small spatial scale (kilometres) and short temporal scale (months), where other environmental drivers (current, light, regional variability) are constant.     

The Role of Small Islands in Marine Subsistence Strategies: Case Studies from the Caribbean

Caribbean archaeologists have tended to focus exclusively on the prehistory of the largest islands, perhaps because large islands are believed to provide the landmass necessary to support long-term population growth and cultural development. Yet, as research here and elsewhere, e.g., the Pacific, is showing, small islands provided access to resources and landscapes that were not always readily available on the larger islands. Small islands often have superior terrestrial and, especially, marine resources; isolated ritual spaces; and more easily defended locations; although they are susceptible to more rapid overexploitation. This paper examines in detail human needs with regard to island size, demonstrating that small islands were crucial in the development of pre-Columbian Caribbean societies. Four case studies are presented to illustrate that small islands often were preferred over large islands throughout the Caribbean archipelagoes. Finally, these studies show that the prehistoric exploitation and overexploitation of small islands can provide significant insights for establishing baselines that can be used for modern management and conservation efforts.

Cancer in the Solomon Islands

IntroductionThe Solomon Islands, with a population of 550,000, has significant challenges in addressing non-communicable diseases, including cancer, in the face of significant economic, cultural, general awareness and health system challenges.ObjectivesTo summarise the existing knowledge regarding cancer in the Solomon Islands, to gather new data and make recommendations.MethodsA literature review was undertaken and cancer data from the National Referral Hospital, Honiara were analysed and are presented. Key stakeholders were interviewed for their perspectives including areas to target for ongoing, incremental improvements. Last, a health services audit for cancer using the WHO SARA tool was undertaken.ResultsBreast and cervical cancer remain the first and second most commonly identified cancers in the Solomon Islands. The Solomons cancer registry is hospital based and suffers from incomplete data collection due to its passive nature, lack of resources for data entry and processing resulting in weak data which is rarely used for decision-making. The health system audit revealed system and individual reasons for delayed diagnosis or lack of cancer treatment or palliation in the Solomon Islands. Reasons included lack of patient knowledge regarding symptoms, late referrals to the National Referral Hospital and inability of health care workers to detect cancers either due to lack of skills to do so, or lack of diagnostic capabilities, and an overall lack of access to any health care, due to geographical barriers and overall national economic fragility.ConclusionThe Solomon Islands is challenged in preventing, diagnosing, treating and palliating cancer. Stakeholders recommend establishing specialty expertise (in the form of a cancer unit), improved registry processes and increased collaboration between the sole tertiary hospital nationwide and other Solomon health services as important targets for incremental improvement.     

Glavarioid fungi of the Solomon Islands

Twenty-five species in 13 genera are recorded. New taxa are Clavaria vermicularis Ft. var. latispora var. nov., Clavulinopsis brevipes Corner var. termitarii var. nov., C. fusispora Corner, C. solomonensis Corner, Physalacria solomonensis Corner, Pterula gordyus (Speg.) Corner var. macrospora var. nov., P. robusta Corner, Ramaria solomonensis Corner, R. zippelii (Lév.) Corner var. cristatospora var. nov. (also from Borneo), and Ramariopsis kunzei (Ft.) Donk var. megaspora var. nov. (also from Borneo and Tibet). The clavarioid flora is essentially Malaysian and pantropic.     

The distribution of some insects of the Solomon Islands

Among the Solomon Islands' insects two distribution patterns are important, a distinctive fauna on S. Cristoval, and a similarity between the islsnds of Bougainville, Choiseul and S. Ysabel. These result from the island area-fauna size relation, and the expansion of immigrants or island endemics which takes place most easily across the narrower water gaps, although different insects vary in their ability to cross them. The distributions of species in three heteropteran genera are interpreted as stages in a process of expansion, differentiation and replacement. Peculiarities of the S. Cristoval fauna are related to the island's isolation in terms of distance from major sources, rather than any conjectural geological history. However the Bougainville-S. Ysabel affinity coincides with a possible late Pleistocene land connexion.     

The Solomon Islands Project: an introduction

The twin themes of the Solomon Islands Biomedical Project remain 1) the remarkable genetic heterogeneity of the groups in the Solomons; and 2) the differential responses to these groups to rapid modernization/acculturation over the past two decades of this long term study. This introduction summarizes the historical and ethnic relationships of the survey groups, their established genetic distances and their rankings with regard to acculturation at the times of their first survey, and changes occurring up to 1985-86. Relevant features of diet, life style, and epidemiology are described.     

Malocclusion in the Kwaio, a Melanesian group on Malaita, Solomon Islands

In the present investigation, a number of occlusal variables which contribute to malocclusion were quantified among the Kwaio people of Malaita, Solomon Islands. Angle classification, overjet, overbite, openbite, crossbite, rotation, crowding, and spacing were assessed from dental casts of 180 persons (94 males, 86 females) who had complete permanent dentitions anterior to the first molar. Males had significantly more overjet and mandibular incisor crowding than females, and significantly less posterior openbite and mandibular canine-premolar spacing. The frequency of openbite, rotation of maxillary teeth, and crowding of anterior teeth increased with advancing age. The frequency of posterior crowding decreased after age 30. Spacing, in general, increased with advancing age. In the distribution of the Angle classes of occlusion, the Kwaio resembled Australian aborigines living in technologically primitive circumstances.     

Dynamics of phytoplankton in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon

The characteristics of the phytoplankton crop in the centralregion of the Great Barrier Reef were analyzed through two annualcycles together with basic oceanographic parameters. Chlorophylla standing crop and primary production were size fractionatedinto nanoplankton and microplankton components. Community compositionwas determined using the Utermöhl settling technique andcommunity diversities estimated by the Shannon-Weaver equation.The data and analysis are the most comprehensive in existencefor the region, and the first detailed study since the 1928–29Great Barrier Reef expedition. A marked seasonal cycle was identified,contrary to most assumptions, closely associated with precipitationpatterns and nutrients introduced by land drainage. The regionwould rank as mesotrophic with some eutrophic areas in the innerreaches of the Lagoon. Oscillatoria spp. accounted for a largefraction of the majority of phytoplankton maxima and were inverselyrelated to diatom crop densities even under conditions favoringdiatom growth. Microplankton crop species diversities usuallydecreased during extended Oscillatoria blooms. The reduced diversitypersisted after the bloom suggesting that Oscillatoria spp.were the source of extracellular metabolites and/or decompositionproducts adversely influencing diatom microplankton.     

Rhodoliths and coralliths of Muri Lagoon,Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Free-living massive and branching spheroidal growths (about 5 cm diameter) of calcareous red algae (rhodoliths) and corals (coralliths) occur in abundance on the sea bed of shallow Muri Lagoon on Rarotonga's reef flat. The rhodoliths are composed of one or more species of Neogoniolithon, Lithophyllum, Tenarea, and Porolithon; the coralliths are Pavona varians (Verrill) and Porites lutea (Milne-Edwards and Haime). Muri Lagoon is the only area on Rarotonga's reef flat that is sheltered by reef islands from ocean waves. The tidal currents, which are predominantly unidirectional in Muri Lagoon, are concentrated by the reef islands into channels through which sand and gravel sediment is regularly transported. However, these prevailing currents do not normally roll the rhodoliths and coralliths. The results of field experiments on the pick-up velocity of the various types of spheroidal structure, combined with observations on growth histories of massive coralliths as revealed by the non-concentric nature of skeletal density banding, indicate that the rhodoliths and coralliths may remain static for periods up to several months yet maintain a complete envelope of living tissue. This downward survival may depend on the strong currents. Not only is the water flushing through the upper millimetre or so of the sediment substrate, but it is also capable of moving the sand and gravel grains which laterally support the rhodoliths and coralliths so that no one point of a spheroidal structure is in direct contact with the substrate for a fatal length of time. Massive rhodoliths have a high preservation potential as discrete spheroidal structures; in contrast, branching rhodoliths and coralliths are prone to fragmentation, and massive coralliths grow into stable microatolls. We conclude that a similar assemblage of rhodoliths, coralliths and microatolls in the fossil record may be indicative of the former existence of contemporary reef flat islands.