The Pacific-Asia biodiversity transect (Pabitra), a new conservation biology initiative / by Dieter Mueller-Dombois

Abstract

A combination transect approach is planned for the horizontal and vertical ecosystem studies across the Pacific islands. The horizontal transect component is to connect the naturally fragmented Pacific-wide biomes into a research and conservation network. Indigenous upland forests, which are fragments of the Pacific-wide montane tropical rain forest biome, are still extant on many Pacific high islands. They range from the species impoverished outlier islands of Eastern and Northern Polynesia to those of the islands rich in biodiversity in the forests of the Western Pacific and Asia, such as Borneo and New Guinea.