Meeting Abstract

45.1  Wednesday, Jan. 5  Endangered Snals on a Threatened Island HADFIELD, M.G.*; SISCHO, D.R.; University of Hawaii at Manoa; University of Hawaii at Manoa hadfield@hawaii.edu

Pagan Island (PI) with its smoking volcano sits on a highly active ocean ridge about 320 km north of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. Because the U.S. Marines have expressed an interest in using PI as a massive amphibious warfare training area, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is supporting biological surveys on the island. In May 2010, we participated in a 10-day survey of PI for the tree snail Partula gibba, which is listed as endangered in the Territory of Guam. Although the snail has disappeared from its historical range in the northern part of PI, most likely due to a 1981 eruption of Pagan Volcano and the destruction of forest understory by feral cattle, we found it in relative abundance in small forest patches in upper elevations (200 – 325 m) in the southeastern part of PI. We collected tissue samples from P. gibba in five locations on PI, as well as from populations on Sarigan and Saipan Islands to the south. Preliminary analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome-oxidase subunit 1 DNA sequences suggest large genetic differences between these island populations. Along with thriving populations of native plants, intact faunas of native birds and insects, and small populations of an endangered fruit bat and a megapode, the distinctive tree snails of PI argue that this island should never be subjected to the destructive actions of military practices.