Palmyra Research

Victoria University of Wellington is a founder member of the Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium (PARC). The 9 other members are all US universities or agencies: Stanford University, University of Hawaii, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Irvine, California Academy of Sciences, The American Museum of Natural History, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, US Geological Survey, and The Nature Conservancy. PARC has been set up to promote and coordinate collaborative research at Palmyra Atoll, which is a US territory at approx 5 degrees north of the equator, being at the NW end of the Line Islands. Palmyra is jointly owned by The Nature Conservancy and the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and is a US National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.nature.org/wherewework/asiapacific/palmyra/press/press2152.html). Generous funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (and other sources) has allowed the establishment of a permanent camp on the atoll, the building of a research laboratory, and the purchase of research vessels. CMEER's research at Palmyra is largely focused around the effects of sedimentation on the biota (in particular the giant clams and corals) of the lagoon and reef flat areas. The atoll has no history of long term human inhabitation and it was heavily modified in 1940 by the US Military. As a consequence it is a model system to allow us to understand how human-mediated disturbance effects atolls and their marine resources. Our team is working with The Nature Conservancy and US Fish & Wildlife to understand what changes have occurred in the lagoon system and how natural phenomena are now acting to change the shape and size of the atoll's islets and its hydrodynamics.