Some of the world’s leading scientists have joined forces with The Nature Conservancy to launch a new $1.5 million research station on Palmyra Atoll. They plan to study climate changes, disappearing coral reefs, invasive species and other global environmental threats on the atoll, located 1,000 miles south of Hawaii.
Anders Lyons, former director of The Nature Conservancy’s Maui program is the new Palmyra project director.
“Working together with these world-renown institutions, we can discover and develop new conservation strategies for island habitats throughout the Pacific and around the world,” said Suzanne Case, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii, which will operate the new station.
In addition to The Nature Conservancy, members of the research consortium include the University of Hawaii, Stanford University, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, American Museum of Natural History, California Academy of Sciences, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of California at Irvine, U.S. Geological Survey and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
The consortium will work in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the atoll as a national wildlife refuge.
The Nature Conservancy bought Palmyra Atoll from the Fullard-Leo family in 2000 for $30 million to protect its pristine ecosystems.
Source: Pacific Business News
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