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Climate change issues reach far beyond atmospheric and oceanic sciences, affecting every aspect of life on this planet. The issues are increasingly pivotal in determining future environmental and economic well?being. Variations of climate have profound effects on natural and managed systems; the economies of nations and the well-being of people everywhere” ? (UNFCCC Conference Statement?2nd world climate conference, 1990). In Solomon Islands lack of empirical data on the intimate evidences of climate change e and its implications on the islands’ inhabitants coupled with lack of technical and analytical capability has created gaps in the comprehensive understanding of climate change and sea level rise. Hence people have been ignorant of the adverse effects of climate change until recently (Hiriasia, 2007).

Coral atolls are natural laboratories within which to examine ecological processes (Sachet, 1967; Lee, 1984). They are often isolated, in some cases little disturbed, and have a geologically recent history of terrestrial plant colonisation. Reef islands around the rim of most atolls are Holocene in age. They are composed of biogenic skeletal sediments and have developed since reef growth caught up with sea level which stabilized after post-glacial sea-level rise. Plant colonisation of most of these islands must have occurred over a period of no more than 6000 years.