Location
SPREP LIBRARY
Publisher
National Museum of Natural History
Publication Year:
2000
Publication Place
Washington, DC
Physical Description:
43 p.
Call Number
[EL]
Collection
Material Type
Language
English
Record ID:
34628
Legacy PEIN ID:
74629
General Notes
Available online
Available online
Subject Heading(s)
Ecology - Effects - Human Harvest - Kiribati
Natural resources - Human influence - Kiribati
Protected areas - Oceania
Protected areas - Management
Marine resource
Marine resource management
Marine resources - Pacific - Oceania
Marine resources - Kiribati
Kiribati
Protected areas
Abstract
The lagoon of Tarawa harbors the richest benthos documented for any Pacific atoll. The biota is strongly influenced by its setting in the equatorial upwelling zone and the unusual geomorphology of the atoll, with a submerged western rim, but largely closed and islet-strewn eastern and southern sides. As the metropolitan center of the Republic of Kiribati, Tarawa also has the largest human population of any Pacific atoll. These three attributes impose a strong influence on all aspects of the lagoon. The high regional productivity supports unusually high population densities of heterotrophic mollusks and irregular echinoids for an "open" atoll. The dense human population on the atoll relics largely on marine resources for its protein needs. The lagoonal sand flat harbors dense and diverse mollusk communities, particularly in seagrass beds. These communities support an intensive subsistence fishery with an annual harvest of ca. 1,000 tons in South Tarawa. Much of the available biomass of the two preferred species, the blood cockle Anadara uropigimelana (te bun) and the small conch Strombus luhuanus (te nouo), is taken. Both the seagrass and shellfish beds appear to have expanded considerably in the past 50 years, likely as a result of nutrient enrichment from the rapidly growing human population. Dense mollusk communities along the southeastern lagoon slope at 2-8 m depth support an intensive commercial fishery that harvests approximately 1,000 tons of Anadara per year, again representing much of the available production. Three species of irregular echinoids are conspicuously abundant on the floor of the eastern lagoon, with combined densities >100 m-2 in the muddy facies of the inner lagoon. All aspects of the benthos follow a marked west-to-east and north-to-south zonation, reflecting the one-sided exchange of oceanic waters along the western atoll rim. While mollusk and echinoid biomass increases southeastward, coral diversity and cover decreases in that direction.
Location
SPREP LIBRARY
Publisher
National Museum of Natural History
Publication Year:
2000
Publication Place
Washington, DC
Physical Description:
43 p.
Call Number
[EL]
Collection
Material Type
Language
English
Record ID:
34628
Legacy PEIN ID:
74629
General Notes
Available online
Record Created: 06-May-2008
Record Modified: 23-Feb-2021