Location, aims Long Island's biota was destroyed by volcanic eruption in c. 1645, and Motmot, an emergent island in its caldera lake, was re‐created in 1968, providing a nested pair of natural colonization sequences. In 1999 we surveyed the plants and vertebrates of Long and the entire biota of Motmot for comparison with previous surveys of Long (1932, 1972, birds only) and Motmot (1969–88). Results The known flora of Long is...

Aim In a 1999 expedition we surveyed the non‐avian vertebrates recolonizing a volcanic island off the north coast of Papua New Guinea, and the more recently emerged islet in its caldera lake. It is our intention with this research to document the reassembly of an ecosystem after a cataclysmic event at two temporal stages. Location Long Island, 55 km north of Papua New Guinea, erupted explosively in the seventeenth century. Its...

Phylogenetic relationships among the dusky shrew ( Sorex monticolus ) and eight related species ( S . bairdi , S . bendirii , S . neomexicanus , S. ornatus , S . pacificus , S . palustris , S . sonomae and S. vagrans ) were assessed using sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (801 bp). Analyses using parsimony and maximum likelihood revealed significant molecular variation not reflected in previous morphological s...

This paper is the fifth in a series revising the taxonomy of New Zealand dictyoceratid sponges (phylum Porifera, subclass Ceractinomorpha, order Dictyoceratida). Six new species of the genus Spongia are added to New Zealand's known fauna. The use of subgenera within the genus Spongia is discussed, and two new subgenera are proposed. The genus Hippospongia is revised, and an emended generic diagnosis is proposed.

Aim To examine the response of ring widths of Phyllocladus aspleniifolius to maximum and minimum temperatures and to a zonal index (ZI). Location Tasmania, Australia. Methods Between two and four increment cores were obtained from approximately 20 trees at each of 16 sites of P. aspleniifolius across Tasmania. Four regions were defined and temperature data for climate stations from each of these regions were transformed into d...