Turgeon, D.

Hawaiian early detection and warning system baseline species database

CD-ROM with 23 species lists

2006

c/o Karen Eason, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, 1305 East West Highway, SSMC 1, Room 9266, Silver Spring, MD 20910

NOAA/NCCOS

Controlling invasive species begins with early detection of species new to an area, plus proper taxonomic identification of alien species. Long-term biological monitoring has been conducted in only a few dozen locations at intervals frequent enough to allow for the early detection of aquatic alien species. In addition, alien specimens often sit for years in sample repositories without being identified. Few programs exist where the public and resource managers can report an unusual species and have a taxonomist verify its identification. To overcome these barriers, managers need (1) regular monitoring activity; (2) a database of known taxa for their regions, to compare with new monitoring data; and (3) access to taxonomic resources, including taxonomists and reference collections. In 2002, NCCOS initiated the Pacific Island Reef Inventory and Invasive Species Early Detection System Project in an effort to close these gaps. A concept was developed for an early detection and early warning system to be based upon a regional baseline species inventory against which natural resource managers could compare new monitoring data and species sightings. Agencies and organizations could join their monitoring databases to the baseline inventory using distributed database technology so that new data, when uploaded to the agencys database, would automatically be compared to the existing inventory. Species new to the inventory would be flagged? to alert the user that a species of concern had been found. The manager could then make management decisions based on this alert. The pilot phase of this project was initiated in Hawaii in partnership with the Bishop Museums Hawaii Biological Survey (HBS). HBS provided the species inventories, which were to form the basis of the regional baseline inventory. These inventories were updated as necessary by NCCOS to include missing, pertinent information, and then shepherded through a peer-review process utilizing well-respected taxonomic experts. The spreadsheets contained on this disc are the result of this process. In early 2006, a meeting with Hawaii stakeholders made it apparent that a lack of resources for routine monitoring at likely hot spots for invasive species in Hawaii plus difficulty in producing a complete baseline inventory had made implementation of this approach impractical. The decision was made at that time to close out the Hawaii project, complete the peer-review of species inventories that were already in hand, and turn over the updated species inventory spreadsheets to the project partners for use as they see fit.

FY2004 CRCP Project ID 1387; Project Title: Pacific Island Reef Inventory and Invasive Species Early Detection System; Principal Investigator: Donna Turgeon