The
Iliahi Foundation of
Hawai'i
The Eco-systems of the Hawaiian Islands
This presentation was developed by Samuel
M.
Gon III, Ph.D.,
Director of Science, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii (email
sgon@tnc.org).
Mahalo Samuel for your work in putting this presentation together, for
sharing it with all of us, and for your research and teaching over the
years in the fields of zoology and ecosystems conservation, preservation and
restoration.
.
1) The native plants, animals and ecosystems of Hawai'i comprise a
unique bio-geographic province rich enough to include representatives of all the
global biomes save tundra.
2) This remote ecoregion’s history of change has
taken it through a
period of habitation by an island people who developed a culture as rich and
unique as their natural setting
3) and
whose lifestyles began a course of ecosystem change...
4) that
today culminates in huge challenges both to native species and ecosystems, and to
those charged to manage them
5) The
Hawaiian Islands are the most isolated island chain on Earth. In this satellite
photo, from left to right you can see Niihau, Kaua'i (covered in clouds), Oah'u,
Molokai, Lana'i, Maui and The Big Island of Hawai'i
6) 2,500 or more miles separate Hawai‘i from surrounding continents.
7) Without
the help of people, only those animals who could brave a trans-oceanic voyage by
air or waves were among the colonizers.
8) Here
they developed into species like none other on the planet; coadapted and
balanced as the curved bill of the ‘i‘iwi is a match for the
tubular flowers of the koli‘i, a native lobelioid...
9)
The plant’s anthers deposit pollen precisely on its head while the ‘i‘iwi
receives a nectar meal.
10) About 90% of the roughly 1200 species of native Hawaiian
plants are entirely restricted to the Hawaiian Islands. Some, like the
silversword of Haleakalä above, are found only on a single island, a single
mountain, or a single region of the mountain.
11)
And the proliferation of bird species, such as these Hawaiian honeycreepers,
from a single ancestor, put the celebrated finches of the Galapagos to shame.
12)
Terrestrial Hawaiian ecosystems have been called systems of birds and
invertebrates, and indeed, aside from the native bat, the major faunal
components were a few hundred bird species, and 10,000 endemic species of
insects (as this picture-winged Hawaiian Drosophila fly) and other
invertebrates.
13)
The ecological amplitude of the Hawaiian Archipelago distinguishes it as a World
Bio-geographic Province.
14)
Topography ranges from uneroded youthful lava landscapes…
15)
To razor ridges, the end product of millions of years of erosion.
16)
From lands that were created just this morning...
17)
barren and devoid of life...
18)
To climax forest supporting thousands of species.
19)
From subalpine cinderlands as dry as any of the world’s deserts...
20)
To arguably the wettest spot on earth, at Wai‘ale‘ale on the Island of
Kaua'i.
21)
From coastal dunes at sea level...
22)
To snow-capped volcanic summits in excess of 14,000 feet.
23)
So let’s begin our tour of Hawaiian ecosystems, from coast to summit.
[Follow
on ecosystem tour sections will be added here.]
