USGS Home Contact USGS Search USGS

Geographic Area

The area we work in stretches west and south across most of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii. It includes many of the islands of the trust territories of Polynesia and Micronesia. It is a geographic area that covers 6 time zones and both sides of the equator. This area is more than twice the size of the contiguous 48 American states. These distances and the isolation of the island systems make it logistically challenging to do our work.

Several things stand out about this region. Most of the life forms are found only on specific islands and no where else. They evolved under island conditions which resulted in literally thousands of different but unique kinds of plants and animals, many closely related taxonomically as well as ecologically. Hundreds of these species are threatened with extinction while many others have already disappeared because they were ecologically sensitive to outside threats. The factors causing their disappearance occur in both the terrestrial and the marine environments. Almost all the factors are anthropogenic or man-caused. They range from introduction of species of plants and animals that are a threat to the original endemic species, to loss of land due to developments for agriculture, tourism, and housing for the ever-growing populations of the region.