Ethnological and biogeographical significance of pottery sherds from Nissan Island, Papua New Guinea / Susan Kaplan, Bryn Mawr College.

v.66:no.3(1976)

Sediment biogeochemistry at CO2 vents off Papua-New Guinea (2013, 2014)

Measurement of biogeochemical parameters in coral reef sediments at carbon dioxide vents off Upa-Upasina (Normandy Island, Papua-New Guinea). The data includes in-situ micro/minisensor profiles, sediment characteristics, microbial and meiofauna abundances of vent sediments and reference sites without vent influence.

‘We would have saved her life’ : mobile telephony in an island village in Papua New Guinea

As a new communication technology expands in a disadvantaged, rural area of a developing country, changes take place in the lives of the people in the area. The paper examines the introduction of mobile telephony into a rural village in Papua New Guinea, and contains findings from field research conducted in February 2009. The analysis is undertaken through a social lens, providing an understanding of the roles of mobile phones in this community by foregrounding the feelings, thoughts and attitudes expressed by the village people. This in turn enables a deeper understanding of the sociological effects related to the uptake of mobile telephony.

Prehistoric birds from New Ireland, Papua New Guinea: Extinctions on a large Melanesian island

At least 50 species of birds are represented in 241 bird bones from five late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites on New Ireland (Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea). The bones include only two of seabirds and none of migrant shorebirds or introduced species. Of the 50 species, at least 12 (petrel, hawk, megapode, quail, four rails, cockatoo, two owls, and crow) are not part of the current avifauna and have not been recorded previously from New Ireland. Larger samples of bones undoubtedly would indicate more extirpated species and refine the chronology of extinction. Humans have lived on New Ireland for ca. 35,000 years, whereas most of the identified bones are 15,000 to 6,000 years old. It is suspected that most or all of New Ireland’s avian extinction was anthropogenic, but this suspicion remains undetermined. Our data show that significant prehistoric losses of birds, which are well documented on Pacific islands more remote than New Ireland, occurred also on large, high, mostly forested islands close to New Guinea.

Host use and crop impacts of Oribius Marshall species (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea

Oribius species are small flightless weevils endemic to the island of New Guinea and far northern Cape York, Australia. The adults feed externally on leaves, developing fruit and green bark, but their impact as pests and general host use patterns are poorly known. Working in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea, we carried out structured host use surveys, farmer surveys, shade-house growth trials, and on-farm and on-station impact trials to: (i) estimate the host range of the local Oribius species; (ii) understand adult daily activity patterns; (iii) elucidate feeding habits of the soil dwelling larvae; and (iv) quantify the impacts of adult feeding damage. Oribius inimicus and O. destructor accounted for nearly all the Oribius species encountered locally: of these two O. inimicus was the most abundant. Weevils were collected from 31 of 33 plants surveyed in the Aiyura Valley and a combination of farmer interviews and literature records provided evidence for the beetles being pestiferous on 43 crops currently or previously grown in the Highlands. Adult weevils had a distinct diurnal pattern of being in the upper plant canopy early in the morning and, to a lesser extent, again late in the afternoon. For the remainder of the day beetles resided within the canopy, or possibly off the plant. Movement of adults between plants appeared frequent. Pot trials confirmed the larvae are root feeders. Quantified impact studies showed that the weevils are damaging to a range of vegetable and orchard crops (broccoli, capsicum, celery, French bean, Irish potato, lettuce, orange and strawberry), causing average yield losses of around 30-40%, but up to 100% on citrus. Oribius weevils pose a significant and apparently growing problem for Highland’s agriculture.