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Identify Gaps to Achieving Marine Spatial Management in Kimbe Bay, West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea: A Review of Past Work
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Outcomes from the Community Consultation Process with 100 Communities in Lovongai and Murat Local Level Government Jurisdictions
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Establishing Marine Protected Areas in Lovongai and Murat Local Level Government Jurisdictions, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea: 2017 - 2022: Lessons Learned
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Manus Cash Crop Feasibility Analysis - Part 1.
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Low-frequency vocalizations by cassowaries (Casuarius spp.)
Although some birds can detect wavelengths in the infrasound range, there has been litle evidence that birds produce very low frequencies. We made nine recordings of a captive Dwarf Cassowary (Casuarius benneti) and one recording of a wild Southern Cassowary (C. casuarius) near Crater Mountain, Papua New Guinea. Both species produced sounds near the floor of the human hearing range in their pulsed booming notes: down to 32 Hz for C. casuarius and 23 Hz in C. benneti. Recordings of C. benneti indicate four levels of harmonics with the 23 Hz fundamental frequency. Such low frequencies are probably ideal for communication among widely dispersed, solitary cassowaries in dense rainforest. The discovery of very low-frequency communication by cassowaries creates new possibilities for studying those extremely secretive birds and for learning more about the evolution of avian vocalizations.
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Did fleshy fruit pulp evolve as a defense against seed loss rather than as a dispersal mechanism
Relatively few studies have examined the evolution of the mutualism between endozoochorous plants and seed dispersers. Most seed dispersal studies are ecological and examine the role offruit pulp in promoting seed dispersal. This interaction is often assumed to have originated due to selection stemming from seed dispersers. Here I suggest a “defence scenario” wherein fleshy fruits originated as mechanisms to defend seeds and secondarily became structures to promote seed dispersal. I suggest that frugivory followed from herbivores that specialized on consuming seed defensive tissues and that enhanced seed dispersal was initially a consequence of seed defence. The proposed defence scenario is not posited as an explanation for the sequence that led to all modern frugivores. However, it is suggested that seed predation was the initial source of selection that led to fleshy fruits; the necessary precursor to frugivory. Support is described from the fossil record and from modern structures and interactions. Testable predictions are made in hope that greater interest will be focused on the defensive role of fleshy fruit pulp both in modern interactions and historically.
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Draft Marine Bioregions of the Southwest Pacific
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Great Central Forest Cash Crop Feasibility Analysis. Part 2
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Securing Widespread Community Livelihoods and Resilience Through Coastal Fisheries Co-Management in Papua New Guinea: Country Situation Analysis and Indicators. Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership Programme
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Territoriality and density of an Australian migrant, the Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher, in the New Guinean non-breeding grounds
We report on the non-breeding dispersion and density of Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfishers (Tanysiptera syliva sylvia), an Australo-Papuan intratropical migrant. The study was carried out at the base of the Hunstein Range, in the Sepik basin of Papua New Guinea, using playbacks of calls to census for the presence of birds. Preliminary density estimates (0.4-1.0 birds ha) were higher than expected on the basis of the paucity of museum specimens, the results of broad-scale bird surveys, and observational records. This difference is probably due to their extremely shy behaviour, which would cause them to be under-represented using standard survey methods. Most importantly, at least some kingfishers were territorial, with just a single bird defending each territory. Birds responded to playbacks of their calls using stereotypical territorial responses, and attacked models vigorously. These observations suggest that kingfishers compete for resources at their non-breeding grounds. At least in this species, competition during the non-breeding season may therefore have been a factor in the evolution of intratropical migration, as suggested for the better-studied temperate-tropical migrant species of North America and Europe. In addition, if demographic processes during the non-breeding season are found to limit populations in other Australo-Papuan migrants, the impending massive habitat loss in the Australasian and south-east Asian tropics may have devastating effects on many of these species.
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