HEAR "Webmaster's Pick" archives

This page contains the archives of HEAR "webmaster's pick" section (as previously featured individually on the HEAR home page). For further information, contact webmaster@hear.org.

JAE biological invasions articles
The Journal of Applied Ecology is launching an online issue presenting the 20 most-cited papers published by the Journal of Applied Ecology in the last 5 years in the field of biological invasions. This issue is being released to coincide with first International Congress on Biological Invasions, and also to bring applied perspectives in the management of invasive species to a wider readership.

The birds of the Hawaiian Islands

The birds of the Hawaiian Islands: occurrence, history, distribution, and status contains the synthesis of a lifetime's work on birds of Hawaii by Robert Pyle. This site provides an official checklist for all species of birds documented as occurring in the Hawaiian Islands. Detailed species accounts are provided for 317 species documented since 1778, including native land birds and waterbirds, breeding seabirds, migratory species, vagrants, and non-native species with established breeding populations. Accounts include historical occurrence as well as current status. Documentary images are provided for rare and unusual occurrences and trends based on Chistmas Count data are provided when sample sizes are adequate. Species accounts are also provided for 42 species of hypothetical occurrence or that have been erroneously reported, and 145 non-native species introduced or reported in the wild, but for which viable breeding populations have not been established. This site represents the culmination of work undertaken by Robert L. Pyle during the 1950-2000s and completed by his family following his passing.

Alien reptiles and amphibians (Kraus, 2009)
Alien reptiles and amphibians: a scientific compendium and analysis, an important new book by Dr. Fred Kraus is now available for limited preview via Google Books. This first-of-its-kind book provides a global analysis of alien reptile and amphibian distribution. The book includes a CD-ROM of a worldwide database (2,142 records for 676 taxa) complete with literature citations (>4,000). Discussions include introduction patterns and pathways; impacts of alien herps; management responses to alien herp invasions; and implications for policy and research. Additionally, the introductory chapter includes an excellent general overview of invasiveness (relevant for any taxonomic group). And, of course, the informative and well-documented text is written in Dr. Kraus's inimitable entertaining style. Ordering information and additional information from the publisher is available online.

Strawberry guava video
This video explains why strawberry guava (waiawi) is such a threat to native Hawaiian forests, and why Tectococcus ovatus is part of a solution to this problem. (This video was produced by the Hawaii Conservation Alliance.)

Strawberry guava biocontrol info from IPIF
Biocontrol for strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum) is addressed by the Institute for Pacific Islands Forestry (USDA Forest Service). In the wake of a lot of misinformation that has caused a fear-based reaction to the biocontrol by the public, this website can serve as a resource to provide clarity, facts, and answers to common questions.

Strawberry guava's hold has proven devastating
UH-Hilo professor Jon Price explains the threat that strawberry guava poses to Hawaii's native forests, and explains how the (low) risks of the well-researched proposed biocontrol agent for this species outweigh the likely great benefits of its introduction.

Tenbruggencate on strawberry guava biocontrol
Hawaii journalist Jan Tenbruggencate presents information about biocontrol for strawberry guava, which he notes may be a partial answer to the problem of controlling this major forest pest.

NPR: Hawaii's Prettiest Pests
NPR recently featured invasive plants in Hawaii in its blog "Talking Plants with Ketzel Levine."

Raising Islands: Jan TenBruggencate blog
Jan TenBruggencate has recently created an excellent blog focusing on science, conservation, and the environment in Hawaii.

The Raising Islands blog is "[a] discussion of the Hawaiian Islands, hosted by Jan TenBruggencate. Science, environment and conservation are a focus, but not the limit of the conversation. We will wander as well into canoe voyaging, archaeology, health and a range of other topics. The blog may further serve as a review of scientific literature with applications to the Islands. Researchers are invited to point us to relevant papers." (from http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/, accessed 27 August 2007)

"TenBruggencate is a veteran Hawai'i newswriter, science journalist, author. He lives on Kaua'i. As the science and environment writer for The Honolulu Advertiser, he wrote the state's first and longest-running column on the Hawaiian environment. He has won awards from the Hawaiian Academy of Science, Conservation Council for Hawai'i, Hawai'i Audubon Society, and others." (from http://www.blogger.com/profile/11097508601802284702, accessed 27 August 2007)

Plants of Hawaii - images by FAMILY
Now you can browse through the famous copyright-free "Starr images" of the plants of Hawaii BY FAMILY. This allows you to have an overall look at thumbnails of representatives of related genera on one page, so as to make identification of an unknown specimen easier. Thanks to Forest & Kim Starr for yet another great achievement!

PIER v5.1
A new version of the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk project (PIER) website has been posted, with many enhancements, including:

Species by location (country/territory/state, island group, and island) tables are included for all such entities where there are sufficient data. These tables, of course, have hyperlinks to the profile pages for the individual species. See http://www.hear.org/pier/locations/islands.htm. (NOTE: The information on PIER is only as good as the supporting data; if you find that known species are not listed for your location, please contact PIER with this information [pier@hear.org].)
Common names by language are now available; see http://www.hear.org/pier/commonnames/languages/.
Over 5000 herbarium records from the Bishop Museum have been added to the location data. In many cases these records document locations not found in the literature.
A revised CD version is also available. If you have poor/slow/expensive internet access or would like a CD to use in your laptop away from the office, please send your request to pier@hear.org.

As always, corrections and additions to PIER data are welcomed. (URLs: http://www.hear.org/pier/; http://www.hear.org/pier/locations/islands.htm; http://www.hear.org/pier/commonnames/languages/; posted to HEAR Webmaster's Pick 27 November 2006 by PT)

National Invasive Species Information Center
The NISIC website is a reference gateway to information, organizations, and services about invasive species.

Natural Areas of Hawaii
Reports, images, and facts about selected natural areas of Hawaii are online.

invasivespeciesinfo.gov: Hawaii
Government, academic, and other resources RE: invasive species in Hawaii are available at invasivespeciesinfo.gov.

National Invasive Species Information Center
The NISIC website is a reference gateway to information, organizations, and services about invasive species.

Natural Areas of Hawaii
Reports, images, and facts about selected natural areas of Hawaii are online.

invasivespeciesinfo.gov: Hawaii
Government, academic, and other resources RE: invasive species in Hawaii are available at invasivespeciesinfo.gov.

Hoike curriculum
The Hoike o Haleakala curriculum is a curriculum designed to integrate local natural resources (Maui) into the high-school level science classroom.

Testimony to U.S. Senate
Testimony RE: invasive species to a U.S. Senate subcommittee--particularly with respect to the National Park Service--was presented 09 August 2005.

Global Invasive Species Database
The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) provides information about a variety of invasive species from around the world. (GISD is a product of IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group.)

Environment Hawaii
Environment Hawaii contains important up-to-date news about Hawaii's environment. This newsletter is published by a non-profit corporation.

Invasive and exotic species of North America
This website (www.invasive.org) website is an excellent resource containing images, links to online references, and other information about invasive species in North America.

Weed Risk Asssement
Weed risk assessment information is now available on the HEAR website. Send suggestions for other information to add!

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) website contains a plethora of information about Pacific Islands, including links such as the SPC's Plant Protection Service site.

UH/CTAHR coqui frog page
Control of coqui frogs in Hawaii is a new website from UH/CTAHR.

Herbicidal Weed Control Methods for Pastures and Natural Areas of Hawaii

This recent publication was just release online, and is authored by folks from CTAHR and HDOA.

The Plants of Hawaii Image Index is a new website including over 6000 images (high-resolution and copyright-free) of over 900 plant taxa of Hawaii. Included are both native and non-native species. Also, there are detailed species reports and Maui-occurrence roadside maps for many of the species.

A Global Compendium of Weeds is a useful site listing over 20,000 weed taxa, along with references, common names, and more!

Some documents posted on the HEAR website are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. If your computer is not already set up to read these files, you can download the FREE Adobe Acrobat reader. You can set up most web browsers to automatically invoke this reader (as a "helper application" or "add-in") upon encountering documents of this type (refer to your browser's documentation for how to do this).

The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR) project is currently funded by the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) through PIERC (USGS) with support from HCSU (UH-Hilo). More details are available online.

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Comments? Questions? Send e-mail to: webmaster@hear.org

This page was created on 21 December 2005 by PT, and was last updated on 03 November 2009 by PT.