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The Journal of Bernice Pauahi

Melanesia is a hotspot of diversity for vascular and non-vascular plant species, with estimated species endemism as high as 80% for New Guinea. The current lack of sitespecific climate and species information is a major impediment to the assessment of possible effects of climate change on islands within Melanesia. Plant communities predicted to be impacted most by the effects of climate change are the mangrove and coastal systems, montane systems, and dryland vegetation communities. However, anthropogenic effects, such as land-clearing, logging, and fire, may have greater effects on diversity in the short-term. Research needs for the area include intensive botanical surveys, physiological and phenological assessments of plant species to the effects of climate change, and long-term monitoring to determine baseline and trends in biodiversity and community structure.

Melanesia is one of the richest biotic regions on the planet. Although consisting of slightly more than half of one percent of the earth’s land area, Melanesia contains a high percentage of the Earth’s terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Numerous studies have indicated that the island of New Guinea (the country of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia’s Papua province) and its associated archipelagos, and the major Melanesian islands (located in the countries of Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia) are major global priorities for conservation (Olsen and Diner stein 20021 ; Wikramanayake et al. 2002; Mittermeier et al. 2003; Mittermeier et al. 2005). Melanesia’s conservation priorities include species and habitat protection as well as the continued provision of ecosystem services to local and global communities that depend on them. How regional climate change resulting from anthropogenic global warming will affect biodiversity in Melanesia is therefore a critical subject for examination with far reaching implications.

Effective conservation of regional biotas requires accurate information on the distribution, endemicity, local richness, and taxonomic composition of species assemblages across multiple geographic scales. This is especially true in the Melanesian region, which contains ten percent of the world's biota on its numerous islands scattered across thousands of kilometers between Fiji and the Moluccas. Although certain important biotic components within this region, such as birds, have been reasonably surveyed, many others, particularly freshwater organisms, remain poorly understood.

The biological communities at ten sites around the Island of Tutuila. American Samoa were surveyed in October 2002 by a team of four investigators. Diving observations and collections of benthic observations using scuba and snorkel were made at six stations in Pago Pago Harbor, two stations in Fagatele Bay. and one station each in Vatia Bay and Fagasa Bay. The purpose of this survey was to determine the organisms greater than 0.5 mm in size occurring at each site, including benthic algae, macroinvertebrates and fishes, and to evaluate the presence and potential impact of nonindigenous (introduced) marine species. These results were compared with all reports of marine organisms for these areas by previous investigators.