1.
Island
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An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, an island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago, an island may be described as such, despite the presence of an artificial land bridge. Example, Singapore and its causeway, or the various Dutch delta islands, there are two main types of islands in the sea, continental and oceanic. The word island derives from Middle English iland, from Old English igland, Old English ieg is actually a cognate of Swedish ö and German Aue, and related to Latin aqua. There is a difference between islands and continents in terms of geology, continents sit on continental lithosphere which is part of tectonic plates floating high on Earths mantle. Oceanic crust is also part of tectonic plates, but it is denser than continental lithosphere, Islands are either extensions of the oceanic crust or geologically they are part of some continent sitting on continental lithosphere. This holds true for Australia, which sits on its own continental lithosphere, continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. A special type of island is the microcontinental island, which is created when a continent is rifted. Examples are Madagascar and Socotra off Africa, the Kerguelen Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, another subtype is an island or bar formed by deposition of tiny rocks where water current loses some of its carrying capacity. While some are transitory and may disappear if the volume or speed of the current changes, others are stable, oceanic islands are islands that do not sit on continental shelves. The vast majority are volcanic in origin, such as Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, the few oceanic islands that are not volcanic are tectonic in origin and arise where plate movements have lifted up the ocean floor above the surface. Examples are Saint Peter and Paul Rocks in the Atlantic Ocean, one type of volcanic oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring, examples are the Aleutian Islands, the Mariana Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. The only examples in the Atlantic Ocean are some of the Lesser Antilles, another type of volcanic oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples, Iceland, which is the second largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen. A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the tectonic plate above it
2.
Caribbean Sea
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The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the islands of the West Indies. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km2, the seas deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays, the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria, the Caribbean Sea has the worlds second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the name Caribbean derives from the Caribs, one of the regions dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. During the first century of development, Spanish dominance in the region remained undisputed, from the 16th century, Europeans visiting the Caribbean region identified the South Sea as opposed to the North Sea. The Caribbean Sea had been unknown to the populations of Eurasia until 1492, at that time the Western Hemisphere in general was unknown to Europeans. Following the discovery of the islands by Columbus, the area was colonised by several Western cultures. As of 2015 the area is home to 22 island territories, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows, On the North. In the Windward Channel – a line joining Caleta Point and Pearl Point in Haïti, in the Mona Passage – a line joining Cape Engano and the extreme of Agujereada in Puerto Rico. From Galera Point through Trinidad to Galeota Point and thence to Baja Point in Venezuela, note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate, the Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad, the larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed the proto-caribbean basin existed in the Devonian period, in the early Carboniferous movement of Gondwana to the north and its convergence with the Euramerica basin decreased in size. The next stage of the Caribbean Seas formation began in the Triassic, powerful rifting led to the formation of narrow troughs, stretching from modern Newfoundland to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico which formed siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. In the early Jurassic due to powerful marine transgression, water broke into the present area of the Gulf of Mexico creating a vast shallow pool, the emergence of deep basins in the Caribbean occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Nature reserve
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Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws, early reservations often had a religious underpinning, such as the evil forest areas of West Africa which were forbidden to humans, who were threatened with spiritual attack if they went there. Sacred areas taboo from human entry to fishing and hunting are known by ancient cultures worldwide. The worlds first modern nature reserve was established in 1821 by the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton around his estate in Walton Hall and he spent £9000 on the construction of a 3 mile long,9 ft tall wall to enclose his park from poachers. He tried to encourage birdlife by planting trees and hollowing out trunks for owls to nest in and he also invented artificial nest boxes to house starlings, jackdaws and sand martins and unsuccessfully attempted to introduce little owls from Italy. Drachenfels was protected as the first state-designated nature reserve in modern-day Germany, in Australia, a nature reserve is the title of a type of protected area used in the jurisdictions of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. The term “nature reserve” is defined in the relevant statutes used in those states and territories rather than by a national statute. As of 2014,1767 out of a total of 10339 protected areas listed within the Australian National Reserve System used the term “nature reserve in their names, in Brazil, nature reserves are classified as ecological stations or biological reserves by the National System of Conservation Units. Their main objectives are preserving fauna and flora and other natural attributes, visits are allowed only with permission, and only for educational or scientific purposes. Changes to the ecosystems in both types of reserve are allowed to restore and preserve the balance, biological diversity. Ecological stations are allowed to change the environment within strictly defined limits for the purpose of scientific research. A wildlife reserve in Brazil is also protected, and hunting is not allowed, there are 30 nature reserves in Egypt which cover 12% of Egyptian land. Those nature reserves were built according to the laws no, 102/1983 and 4/1994 for protection of the Egyptian nature reserve. Egypt announced a plan from to build 40 nature reserves from 1997 to 2017, to protect the natural resources. The largest nature reserve in Egypt is Gebel Elba in the southeast, denmark has three national parks and several nature reserves, some of them inside the national park areas. The largest single reserve is Hanstholm Nature Reserve, which covers 40 km2 and is part of Thy National Park, in Sweden there are 29 national parks. The first of them were established in 1909, in fact, Sweden was the first European country that established 9 national parks. There are almost 4,000 nature reserves in Sweden and they comprise about 85% of the surface that is protected by the Swedish Enironmental Code
5.
Coral
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Corals are marine invertebrates in the class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in colonies of many identical individual polyps. The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans, a coral group is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is an animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening, an exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning, polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon and these are commonly known as zooxanthellae and the corals that contain them are zooxanthellate corals. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, other corals do not rely on zooxanthellae and can live in much deeper water, with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3,000 metres. Some have been found on the Darwin Mounds, north-west of Cape Wrath, Corals have also been found as far north as off the coast of Washington State and the Aleutian Islands. In his Scala Naturae, Aristotle classified corals as zoophyta, animals that had characteristics of plants and were therefore hypothetically in between animals and plants, the Persian polymath Al-Biruni classified sponges and corals as animals, arguing that they respond to touch. The phylogeny of Anthozoans is not clearly understood and a number of different models have been proposed, within the Hexacorallia, the sea anemones, coral anemones and stony corals may constitute a monophyletic grouping united by their eight-fold symmetry and cnidocyte trait. The Octocorallia appears to be monophyletic, and primitive members of this group may have been stolonate, the cladogram presented here comes from a 2014 study by Stampar et al. which was based on the divergence of mitochondrial DNA within the group and on nuclear markers. Corals are classified in the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria and they are divided into three subclasses, Hexacorallia, Octocorallia, and Ceriantharia. The Hexacorallia include the stony corals, the sea anemones and the zoanthids and these groups have polyps that generally have 6-fold symmetry. The Octocorallia include blue coral, soft corals, sea pens and these groups have polyps with 8-fold symmetry, each polyp having eight tentacles and eight mesenteries. Fire corals are not true corals, being in the order Anthomedusa of the class Hydrozoa, Corals are sessile animals in the class Anthozoa and differ from most other cnidarians in not having a medusa stage in their life cycle. The body unit of the animal is a polyp, most corals are colonial, the initial polyp budding to produce another and the colony gradually developing from this small start
6.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
7.
Christopher Columbus
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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
8.
Haiti
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Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti and formerly called Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, the region was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people. Spain discovered the island on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic, when Columbus initially landed in Haiti, he had thought he had found India or Asia. On Christmas Day 1492, Columbus flagship the Santa Maria ran aground north of what is now Limonade, the island was named La Española and claimed by Spain, which ruled until the early 17th century. Competing claims and settlements by the French led to the portion of the island being ceded to France. The development of plantations, worked by slaves brought from Africa. Upon his death in a prison in France, he was succeeded by his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian Revolution lasted just over a dozen years, and apart from Alexandre Pétion, the first President of the Republic, all the first leaders of government were former slaves. The Citadelle Laferrière is the largest fortress in the Americas, Henri Christophe – former slave and first king of Haiti, Henri I – built it to withstand a possible foreign attack. It has the lowest Human Development Index in the Americas, most recently, in February 2004, a coup détat originating in the north of the country forced the resignation and exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A provisional government took control with security provided by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, the name Haïti comes from the indigenous Taíno language which was the native name given to the entire island of Hispaniola to mean, land of high mountains. The h is silent in French and the ï in Haïti, is a mark used to show that the second vowel is pronounced separately. In English, this rule for the pronunciation is often disregarded, the name Haïti was restored by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of independent Saint-Domingue, as a tribute to the Amerindian predecessors. The Taíno name for the island was Haiti. The people had migrated over centuries into the Caribbean islands from South America, genetic studies show they were related to the Yanomami of the Amazon Basin. They also originated in Central and South America, after migrating to Caribbean islands, in the 15th century, the Taíno were pushed into the northeast Caribbean islands by the Caribs. In the Taíno societies of the Caribbean islands, the largest unit of organization was led by a cacique, or chief. The caciquedoms were tributary kingdoms, with payment consisting of harvests, Taíno cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the country. These have become symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions
9.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
10.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
11.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
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The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency of the federal government within the U. S. Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The leader of the FWS is the director of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Daniel M. Ashe, of Maryland, bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory Landscape Conservation Cooperatives The vast majority of fish and wildlife habitat is on non-federal lands. The FWS employs approximately 9,000 people and is organized into an administrative office, eight regional offices. Spencer Fullerton Baird was appointed its first commissioner, in 1903, the Fish Commission was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries. In 1885–1886, the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy was established within the United States Department of Agriculture, in 1896 it became the Division of Biological Survey. Its early work focused on the effect of birds in controlling pests and mapping the geographical distribution of plants. Clinton Hart Merriam headed the Bureau for 25 years and became a figure for improving the scientific understanding of birds. Under Darlings guidance, the Bureau began a legacy of protecting vital natural habitat throughout the country. The USFWS was finally created in 1940, when the Bureaus of Fisheries, however, these exceptions often only apply to Native Americans that are registered with the federal government and are enrolled with a federally recognized tribe. Therefore, many people that wish to practice their religion continue to face persecution. This has become a source of conflict between many tribes and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the USFWS began to incorporate the research of scientists into conservation decisions. Additionally, other natural resource agencies within the United States government, such as the USDA, have taken steps to be inclusive of tribes, native people. This has marked a transition to a relationship of more cooperation rather than the tension between tribes and government agencies seen historically, today, these agencies work closely with tribal governments to ensure the best conservation decisions are made and that tribes retain their sovereignty
12.
Guano Islands Act
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The Guano Islands Act is a United States federal law passed by the U. S. Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and it also empowers the President of the United States to use the military to protect such interests and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States in these territories. The Act continues to be part of the law of the United States, the most recent Guano Islands Act claim was made to Navassa Island, however, the claim was discarded because a court ruled the island was already under American jurisdiction. In the 1840s, guano came to be prized as a source of saltpeter for gunpowder as well as an agricultural fertilizer, the United States began importing it in 1843 through New York. By the early 1850s, the U. K. imported over 200,000 tons a year, and U. S. imports totaled about 760,000 tons. The Act enables U. S. citizens to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano for the U. S. and this encouraged American entrepreneurs to search and exploit new deposits on tiny islands and reefs in the Caribbean and in the Pacific. This is the beginning of the concept of insular areas in U. S. territories, with insular areas, land could be held by the federal government without the prospect of its ever becoming a state in the Union. The provision was considered and ruled constitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court in Jones v. United States,137 U. S.202. More than 100 islands have been claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act, but most claims have been withdrawn. The Act specifically allows the islands to be considered possessions of the U. S. on the other hand, it also does not say that the U. S. cannot retain possession though the guano is exhausted. The Act does not specify what the status of the territory is after it is abandoned by private U. S. interests, the implication is that it reverts to its former status as terra nullius. In most cases, the stems from attempts by a state to expand its exclusive economic zone over the surrounding seas. To cement the U. S. claim to Navassa Island against Haiti, control of Navassa Island was transferred by the Department of the Interior to the Director of the Office of Insular Affairs under Order No.3205 on January 16,1997. Both the Department of the Interior and Insular Affairs would later grant administration responsibilities to the United States Fish, Order No 3210 also established a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea boundary for the United States around Navassa Island. Multiple countries have claimed ownership of Serranilla Bank and the Bajo Nuevo Bank, Bajo Nuevo Bank is the subject of conflicting claims made by a number of sovereign states. In 1899, a claim was made on Fox Island, Quebec, neither the US nor Jamaica recognized his claim before the raft was destroyed in a storm in 1966
13.
Treaty of Ryswick
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The Treaty of Ryswick, or Ryswyck, was signed on 20 September 1697 and named after Ryswick in the Dutch Republic. The treaty settled the War of the League of Augsburg, which pitted France against the Grand Alliance of England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the United Provinces. Under the terms of the treaty, France renounced some recent territorial gains, the French representatives had their headquarters at The Hague, and the allies were based in Delft, the conference taking place in between the two towns in the Huis ter Nieuwburg, Ryswick. Soon, Spain gave way, and on 20 September a treaty of peace was signed between France and the three powers, England, Spain and the United Provinces. William then persuaded Leopold to make peace, and a treaty between France and the Holy Roman Empire was signed on the following 30 October, the basis of the peace was that all towns and districts seized since the Treaty of Nijmegen should be restored. France surrendered Freiburg, Breisach, and Philippsburg to the Holy Roman Empire, on the other hand, France regained Pondichéry, as well as Acadia, and Spain recovered Catalonia and the barrier fortresses of Mons, Luxembourg, and Kortrijk. The War of the Grand Alliance also played out in North America, the French colonies of Acadia and Canada, along with their Native allies, fought the northern English colonies and their Native allies. Still, the Treaty of Ryswick returned the territorial borders to where they had been before the war, the Iroquois nation, deserted by the English allies, continued to make war on the French colonies until the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701. Needle of Rijswijk Peace of Basel 1795 — Hispaniola Barrier Treaty Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Ryswick and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Treaty Of Ryswick. History of European Diplomacy, 1451–1789324 pages online pp 141-54, eccles, W. J. Canada Under Louis XIV
14.
Hispaniola
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Hispaniola is the 22nd-largest island in the world, located in the Caribbean island group, the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, two sovereign nations share the 76, 192-square-kilometre island. The only other shared island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called Haiti by the Taíno. DAnghiera added another name, Quizqueia, but later shows that the word does not seem to derive from the original Arawak Taíno language. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning the Spanish Island in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning the Spanish Island, in Spanish. De las Casas shortened the name to Española, and when d‘Anghiera detailed his account of the island in Latin, he rendered its name as Hispaniola. Due to Taíno, Spanish and French influences on the island, historically the whole island was referred to as Haiti, Hayti, Santo Domingo, St. Domingue. The name Haïti was adopted by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1804, as the name of independent Saint-Domingue. It was also adopted as the name of independent Santo Domingo, as the Republic of Spanish Haiti. Christopher Columbus inadvertently landed on the island during his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, where his flagship, a contingent of men were left at an outpost christened La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Haiti. The island was inhabited by the Taíno, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples, the Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad on what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492. European colonization of the began in earnest the following year. In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela was founded, after being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas, several 16th century writers estimated the 1492 population of Hispaniola at over 1 million people. Twentieth-century estimates of the range from 60,000 to 8,000,000. Harsh enslavement by Spanish colonists, redirection of food supplies and labor towards the colonists, had a impact on both mortality and fertility over the first quarter century. Colonial administrators and Dominican and Hyeronimite priests observed that the search for gold, demographic data from two provinces in 1514 shows a low birth rate consistent with a 3. 5% annual population decline
15.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
16.
Jamaica
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Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as labourers. Named Santiago, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations, the island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, Kingston is the countrys capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans predominately have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016, the indigenous people, the Taíno, called it Xaymaca in Arawakan, meaning the Land of Wood and Water or the Land of Springs. Colloquially Jamaicans refer to their island as the Rock. Slang names such as Jamrock, Jamdown, or briefly Ja, have derived from this, the Arawak and Taíno indigenous people, originating in South America, settled on the island between 4000 and 1000 BC. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1494, there were more than 200 villages ruled by caciques, the south coast of Jamaica was the most populated, especially around the area now known as Old Harbour. The Taino still inhabited Jamaica when the English took control of the island in 1655, the Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any evidence of the Taino/Arawak. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain after landing there in 1494 and his probable landing point was Dry Harbour, now called Discovery Bay, although there is some debate that it might have been St. Anns Bay. St. Anns Bay was named Saint Gloria by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534. Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean, the Spanish were forcibly evicted by the English at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. In 1655, the English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, the English continued to import African slaves as labourers
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Jamaica Channel
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The Jamaica Channel is a strait separating the islands of Jamaica and Hispaniola, in the Caribbean Sea. Along with the Windward Passage to its north, it connects the Caribbean Sea to the North Atlantic Ocean, the strait is about 190 kilometres wide with depths of up to 1,200 metres. Located in the strait about 55 kilometres west of Haiti is Navassa Island, an uninhabited and disputed island measuring 5.2 km²
18.
Ficus
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Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig is a species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region. The fruit of most other species are edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Fig species are characterized by their unique inflorescence and distinctive pollination syndrome, the specific identification of many of the species can be difficult, but figs as a group are relatively easy to recognize. Many have aerial roots and a shape or habit. The fig fruit is an inflorescence, sometimes referred to as a syconium. Finally, there are three traits that together are unique to figs. There are no unambiguous older fossils of Ficus, however, current molecular clock estimates indicate that Ficus is a relatively ancient genus being at least 60 million years old, and possibly as old as 80 million years. The main radiation of extant species, however, may have taken more recently. Moreover, figs with different plant habits have undergone radiation in different biogeographic regions. In the tropics, it is common to find that Ficus is the most species-rich plant genus in a particular forest. In Asia as many as 70 or more species can co-exist, Ficus species richness declines with an increase in latitude in both hemispheres. Figs are keystone species in many rainforest ecosystems and their fruit are a key resource for some frugivores including fruit bats, capuchin monkeys, langurs and mangabeys. They are even more important for some birds, asian barbets, pigeons, hornbills, fig-parrots and bulbuls are examples of taxa that may almost entirely subsist on figs when these are in plenty. The citrus long-horned beetle, for example, has larvae that feed on wood, including that of fig trees, similarly, the sweet potato whitefly is frequently found as a pest on figs grown as potted plants and is spread through the export of these plants to other localities
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Coccoloba diversifolia
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Coccoloba diversifolia is a small to medium-sized tree growing to 10 m tall. The bark is gray, smooth, and thin but may become scaly on the largest trees. The flowers numerous inconspicuous appear on spikes 1. 5–18 cm long in the spring, the fruit is an achene 6–10 mm long surrounded by a dark purple edible fleshy perianth, ripening in the fall. The tree is unable to survive hard frost and it is resistant to high winds, salt and drought. Bahamian dry forests Interactive Distribution Map for Coccoloba diversifolia
20.
Isla de Mona
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Mona is the third-largest island of the Puerto Rican archipelago, after the main island of Puerto Rico and Vieques. It is the largest of three located in the Mona Passage, a strait between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the others being Monito Island and Desecheo Island. It measures about 11 km by 7 km, and lies 66 km west of Puerto Rico, of which it is administratively a part. The original name given to the island by the Taíno Indians is Amona and it is one of two islands that make up the Isla de Mona e Islote Monito Barrio of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The island is managed as the Mona Island Nature Reserve, Mona Island is believed to have been originally settled by Arawak Indians who arrived from Quisqueya. An archeological excavation during the 1980s discovered many Pre-Columbian objects on the island that helped support historians theories of the islands first inhabitants, stone tools found in a rock shelter have been dated to around 3000 BC. Much later the island was settled by the Taínos and remained so until the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century. Within hours of setting foot in Puerto Rico, Columbus and his ships headed west to Hispaniola, as he left Puerto Rico, he reputedly became the first European to sight the island on September 24,1494, which was claimed for Spain. The name Mona derives from the Taíno name Ámona, bestowed by the natives in honor of the ruling Cacique or chief of the island. However, one amateur archaeologist who has studied the Mona Island/Columbus sighting for over 14 years puts this in dispute with the following logic, Columbus is in a bay on the northwest corner. He is to sail from there straight across to the north coast of Hispaniola, why would he sail south to where he has already been and then sail north again to Hispaniola. Mona Island was probably picked by armchair historians because it is the island in the passage between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola that is drawn on most maps. It is more logical that when Columbus left the northwest coast of Puerto Rico and it was never considered by armchair authors because it is small, barren, and of no interest, it is not drawn on most maps. In 1502, Fray Nicolás de Ovando was sent to Isla de la Mona to keep an eye, from a safe distance, with a group of 2,000 Spanish settlers, Ovando was left in charge of creating a permanent settlement on the island. Juan Ponce de León, who accompanied Columbus on his first two voyages, became the first ruling governor of Puerto Rico, in 1515, after some wrangling, Ferdinand II was able to reclaim the island from Diego Colón, Viceroy of the Indies. By then, Isla de la Mona was an important point of trade between Spain and the rest of Latin America, as well as a rest stop for the crews of boats carrying slaves. Realizing that mining would require intense labor, the majority of inhabitants chose to work as fishermen, by accepting this option, they also were exempted from paying imposed taxes, and were able to avoid the hard labor many other natives endured in mines. In time, natives from neighboring islands were brought to Mona Island to assist with labor
21.
Mona Passage
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The Mona Passage is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, the 80 mi stretch of sea between the four islands is one of the most difficult passages in the Caribbean. It is fraught with variable tidal currents created by the islands on either side of it. There are three islands in the Mona Passage, Mona Island lies close to the middle of the Mona Passage, five kilometers northwest of Mona Island is much smaller Monito Island. Fifty kilometers northeast of Mona Island and much closer to the Puerto Rican mainland is Desecheo Island, the Passage was also the site of a devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit western Puerto Rico in 1918. It is the site of frequent small earthquakes, the passage is underlain by a seismically active rift zone that overprints an older partly eroded tilted-block structure. Desecheo Island sits on the Desecheo ridge, a narrow east–west ridge that extends west from the northwest corner of Puerto Rico. The ridge forms the boundary of the 4000 m deep Mona rift which extends toward the north to the strike slip fault zones which bound Puerto Rico. The east face of the rift has a relief of 3 km and is controlled by the N - S trending Mona Rift Fault. The epicenter of the 1918 earthquake was located along the east or southeast edge of the Mona Rift, the Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean waters and Caribbean Sea waters, above a sill depth of 400 to 500 meters. The sill runs along a northwest to southeast direction between Cabo Engaño in the west and the Cabo Rojo Shelf in the east margin of the Mona Passage, the vertical profile of the low-frequency mean meridional water transport is characterized by a two-layer structure. Below this layer, the Tropical Central Water exits toward the Atlantic Ocean, the mean value for the meridional transport for a sampled year was -1.85 ±0.25 Sverdrup into the Caribbean Sea. The barotropic tide propagates from northeast to southwest along Mona Passage, semidiurnal tidal currents impinging on a submarine ridge known as El Pichincho can force the generation of an internal tide with a wave height of 40 meters. Underwater glider observations reveal wave damping as the internal tide propagates south along the Mona Passage towards the open Caribbean Sea, internal tides at El Pichincho can elevate the turbulent vertical diffusivity values, and with a reduction of the Richardson number at the base of the pycnocline. Higher values of productivity were observed near the wave trough. The packets propagate either into the Caribbean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean depending on the direction of the currents that forced their generation, under sail it means an even longer distance because of having to tack a zig-zag course into the easterly trade winds. At the stop of Saona Island on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic and this is an advantage which is not possible when departing from Samaná. It is only about 40 miles from Saona to the protected anchorage inside the coral reef on the west coast of Mona Island
22.
Puerto Rico
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Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra. The capital and most populous city is San Juan and its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The islands population is approximately 3.4 million, Puerto Ricos rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African captives, and Canarian. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States appropriated Puerto Rico together with most former Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States, however, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U. S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the level and may not vote for president. However, Congress approved a constitution, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. A fifth referendum will be held in June 2017, with only Statehood, in early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with 12. 4% unemployment, the debt had been increasing during a decade long recession. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is also known in Spanish as la isla del encanto. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city. The islands name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the anglicized name was used by the US government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931, the ancient history of the archipelago known today as Puerto Rico is not well known. The scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish scholarly accounts from the colonial era constitute the basis of knowledge about them. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland
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Dominican Republic
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The Dominican Republic is a sovereign state occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western one-third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, christopher Columbus landed on the Western part of Hispaniola, in what is now Haiti, on December 6,1492. The island became the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World, the Dominican people declared independence in November 1821 but were forcefully annexed by their more powerful neighbor Haiti in February 1822. After the 1844 victory in the Dominican War of Independence against Haitian rule the country again under Spanish colonial rule until the Dominican War of Restoration of 1865. The Dominican Republic experienced mostly internal strife until 1916, a civil war in 1965, the countrys last, was ended by another U. S. military occupation and was followed by the authoritarian rule of Joaquín Balaguer, 1966–1978. Since then, the Dominican Republic has moved toward representative democracy and has been led by Leonel Fernández for most of the time since 1996. Danilo Medina, the Dominican Republics current president, succeeded Fernandez in 2012, the Dominican Republic has the ninth-largest economy in Latin America and is the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region. Though long known for agriculture and mining, the economy is now dominated by services. Over the last two decades, the Dominican Republic have been standing out as one of the economies in the Americas – with an average real GDP growth rate of 5. 4% between 1992 and 2014. GDP growth in 2014 and 2015 reached 7.3 and 7. 0%, respectively, in the first half of 2016 the Dominican economy grew 7. 4% continuing its trend of rapid economic growth. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing and tourism, private consumption has been strong, as a result of low inflation, job creation, as well as high level of remittances. The Dominican Republic has a market, Bolsa de Valores de la Republica Dominicana. and advanced telecommunication system. Nevertheless, unemployment, government corruption, and inconsistent electric service remain major Dominican problems, the country also has marked income inequality. International migration affects the Dominican Republic greatly, as it receives, mass illegal Haitian immigration and the integration of Dominicans of Haitian descent are major issues. A large Dominican diaspora exists, mostly in the United States, contributes to development, the Dominican Republic is the most visited destination in the Caribbean. The year-round golf courses are major attractions, the island has an average temperature of 26 °C and great climatic and biological diversity. The country is also the site of the first cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress built in all of the Americas, located in Santo Domingos Colonial Zone, a World Heritage Site. Music and sport are of importance in the Dominican culture, with Merengue and Bachata as the national dance and music
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Guano
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Guano is the accumulated excrement of seabirds, seals, or cave-dwelling bats. As a manure, guano is an effective fertilizer due to its exceptionally high content of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium. During the twentieth century, guano-producing birds became an important target of conservation programs, today, guano is increasingly sought after by organic farmers. Seabird guano consists of nitrogen-rich ammonium oxalate and urate, phosphates, as well as some earth salts, the word guano originates from the Andean indigenous language Quechua, which refers to any form of dung used as an agricultural fertilizer. Archaeological evidence suggests that Andean people have collected guano from small islands, spanish colonial documents suggest that the rulers of the Inca Empire assigned great value to guano, restricted access to it, and punished any disturbance of the birds with death. The Guanay cormorant has historically been the most abundant and important producer of guano, other important guano producing species off the coast of Peru are the Peruvian pelican and the Peruvian booby. At that time, massive deposits of guano existed on some islands, in this context the United States passed the Guano Islands Act in 1856, which gave U. S. citizens discovering a source of guano on an unclaimed island exclusive rights to the deposits. Nine of these islands are still officially U. S. territories, control over guano played a central role in the Chincha Islands War between Spain and a Peruvian-Chilean alliance. Indentured workers from China played an important role in guano harvest, the first group of 79 Chinese workers arrived in Peru in 1849, by the time that trade ended a quarter of a century later, over 100,000 of their fellow countrymen had been imported. There is no evidence that enslaved Pacific Islanders participated in guano mining. Between 1847 and 1873, there was a significant increase in Peruvian guano exports, after 1870, the use of Peruvian guano as a fertilizer was eclipsed by saltpeter in the form of caliche extraction from the interior of the Atacama Desert, not far from the guano areas. Since 1909, when the Peruvian government took over guano extraction for use by Peru farmers, South Africa independently developed its own guano industry based on sustained-yield production from marine birds during this period, as well. Both industries eventually collapsed due to pressure from overfishing, DNA testing has suggested that new potato varieties imported alongside Peruvian seabird guano in 1842 brought a virulent strain of potato blight that began the Irish Potato Famine. The ideal type of guano is found in dry climates. Post-depositional decomposition and ammonia volatilization of penguin guano also plays an important role in the evolution of ornithogenic sediments in the cold, Bat guano is usually mined in caves and this mining is associated with a corresponding loss of troglobytic biota and diminishing of biodiversity. Guano deposits support a variety of cave-adapted invertebrates that rely on bat feces as their sole source of nutrition. The greatest damage caused by mining to caves with extant guano deposits is to the bat colonies themselves, bats are highly vulnerable to regular disturbance to their roosts. Some species, such as Phyllonycteris aphylla, have low fat reserves, many species will drop pups when in panic, with subsequent death, leading to a steady reduction in population
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Endemism
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The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, the word endemic is from New Latin endēmicus, from Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, native. Endēmos is formed of en meaning in, and dēmos meaning the people, the term, precinctive, has been suggested by some scientists, and was first used in botany by MacCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of endemism, precinction was perhaps first used by Frank and McCoy. That definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks, physical, climatic, and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange-breasted sunbird is found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. The glacier bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska, political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or actively hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another. There are two subcategories of endemism, paleoendemism and neoendemism, paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization. Endemics can easily become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly—but not only—due to human actions, there were millions of both Bermuda petrels and Bermuda cedars in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century. By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct, cedars, already ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding, were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and cedars are now rare, as are species endemic to Bermuda
26.
Anguidae
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Anguidae is the name of a large and diverse family of lizards native to the Northern Hemisphere. The group includes the slowworms, glass lizards, and alligator lizards, the family is divided into three subfamilies and contains 102 species in ten genera. They have hard osteoderms beneath their scales, and many of the species have reduced or absent limbs, giving them a snake-like appearance, anguids are carnivorous or insectivorous, and inhabit a wide range of different habitats. The group includes both egg-laying and viviparous species, most species are terrestrial, although some climb trees. Anguids have a good fossil record. Anguids were particularly diverse during the Paleocene and Eocene in North America, some species, such as Glyptosaurus, grew to large size and evolved a highly specialized crushing dentition
27.
Gecko
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Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 to 60 cm, most geckos cannot blink, but they often lick their eyes to keep them clean and moist. They have a fixed lens within each iris that enlarges in darkness to let in more light, Geckos are unique among lizards in their vocalizations. They use chirping sounds in social interactions with other geckos and they are the most species-rich group of lizards, with about 1,500 different species worldwide. The New Latin gekko and English gecko stem from the Indonesian-Malay gēkoq, all geckos, excluding the Eublepharidae family, lack eyelids and instead have a transparent membrane, which they lick to clean. Nocturnal species have an excellent night vision, their vision is 350 times more sensitive than human color vision. The nocturnal geckos evolved from diurnal species which had lost the eye rods, the gecko eye therefore modified its cones that increased in size into different types both single and double. Three different photopigments have been retained and are sensitive to UV, blue and they also use a multifocal optical system that allows them to generate a sharp image for at least two different depths. Most gecko species can lose their tails in defense, a process called autotomy, many species are well known for their specialised toe pads that enable them to climb smooth and vertical surfaces, and even cross indoor ceilings with ease. Geckos are well-known to people who live in regions of the world. These become part of the menagerie and are often welcomed, as they feed on insects, including moths. Unlike most lizards, geckos are usually nocturnal, the largest species, the kawekaweau, is only known from a single, stuffed specimen found in the basement of a museum in Marseille, France. This gecko was 60 cm long and it was endemic to New Zealand. The smallest gecko, the Jaragua sphaero, is a mere 1.6 cm long and was discovered in 2001 on an island off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Geckos occur in various patterns and colors, and are among the most colorful lizards in the world, some species can change colour and may be lighter in colour at night. Some species are parthenogenic, which means the female is capable of reproducing without copulating with a male and this improves the geckos ability to spread to new islands. However, in a situation where a single female gecko populates an entire island, the geckos mating call sounds like a shortened bird chirping which attracts males, when they are nearby. Like other reptiles, geckos are ectothermic, producing very little metabolic heat, essentially a geckos body temperature is dependent on its environment
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Sphaerodactylus
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All species in this genus are rather small, but two species, S. ariasae and S. parthenopion, are tiny, and – with a snout-vent length of about 1.6 cm —the smallest reptiles in the world. The following 105 species are recognized as being valid. M. C. T, Sphaerodactylus at the Reptarium. cz Reptile Database Schwartz A, Thomas R. A Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles, Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No.1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Museum of Natural History,216 pp. Wagler J. Natürliches System der AMPHIBIEN, mit vorangehender Classification der SÄUGTHIERE und VÖGEL. Vi +354 pp. + one plate, media related to Sphaerodactylus at Wikimedia Commons
29.
Anolis
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Anolis, or anoles, is a genus of iguanian lizards belonging to the family Dactyloidae. With 391 species, Anolis represents the worlds most species-rich amniote tetrapod genus and this very large genus displays considerable paraphyly, but phylogenetic analysis suggests a number of subgroups or clades. These include, carolinensis isolepis Several species of Anolis are occasionally ascribed to the genus Norops, Several species often listed under Anolis have been ascribed to the genus Phenacosaurus, but recent work places them in the clade Dactyloa. The green anole has become the first reptile to have its complete genome sequenced. Closely related, recently diverged anole lizards exhibited more divergence in thermal biology than in morphology and these anole lizards are thought to have the same structural niche and have similarities in their size and shape. However they inhabited different climatic niches in which there was variability in temperature and this suggests that thermal physiology is more associated with recently diverged anole lizards. Anolis lizards are some of the best examples of adaptive radiation and convergent evolution. Populations of lizards on isolated islands diverge to occupy separate ecological niches, in addition, these patterns repeat on numerous islands, with animals in similar habitats converging on similar body forms repeatedly. After appearing on each of the four Greater Antillean Islands about 50 million years ago, some living in the tree canopy area, others low on the tree trunk near the ground, others in the mid-trunk area, others on twigs. Each new species developed its own distinct type, called an ecomorph. Together the different species occupied their various niches in the trees as a community, a study of lizard fossils trapped in amber, show the lizard communities have existed for about 20 million years or more. Four modern ecomorph body types, trunk-crown, trunk-ground, trunk, close comparison of the lizard fossils with their descendants alive today in the Caribbean shows the lizards have changed little in the millions of years. Polychrotidae Carolina anole Brown anole Losos, Jonathan B, lizards in an evolutionary tree, ecology and adaptive radiation of anoles. Anole Annals, a written and edited by scientists who study Anolis lizards Anolis, The Reptile Database Adapting Anolis
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Anole
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The Dactyloidae are a family of lizards commonly known as anoles /əˈnoʊliːz/. The NCBI places the anole in subfamily Polychrotinae of the family Iguanidae and these clades are, Dactyloa, Deiroptyx, Ctenonotus, Xiphosurus, Norops, Chamaelinorops, Anolis and Audantia. Therefore, Polychrotidae as a family has been invalidated, which classifies Polychrus under subfamily Polychrotinae, due to their ability to change color, anolis lizards are frequently referred to as American chameleons. Anolis lizards also share characteristics with geckos. However anoles are not closely related to either of those groups, Anoles share many anatomical features with arboreal iguanas. These similarities include skeletal structure and nearly identical foot structure, a large majority of them sport a green coloration, including the only species native to the United States, the aptly named green anole. The green anole can change its color based on level, sun/light exposure. Although their color changing ability is limited, often anoles are only able to change one color. Anoles are a diverse and plentiful group of lizards. The knight, green, bark, Jamaican giant, and Cuban brown anoles can all be found in the United States, the most prevalent of these species by far is the Cuban brown anole, which has pushed the native green anole population farther north. When green anoles and brown anoles inhabit the area, the brown anoles are primarily terrestrial or restrict themselves to the lower branches of bushes. Brown anoles have also spread into East Texas, at a nursery in the Heights neighborhood of Houston, Texas, a stable population has established itself, hatchlings having been observed in the spring of 2005. While nearly all anoles can change their color, the extent and variations of this ability differ widely throughout the individual species. For example, the green anole can change its color from a bright, leafy green to a brown color, while the Cuban brown can only change its shade of brown. Many anoles are between eight and 18 cm in length, some larger species, such as the knight anole, can surpass 12 in, some males of the knight anole species can even reach 20 in in length. Anoles diets include insects and other invertebrates, with crickets, spiders. They have been seen to eat butterflies, Anoles are opportunistic feeders, and may attempt to eat any attractive meal that is small enough. The primary foods for captive anoles are small feeder crickets that can be purchased at most pet stores and they usually inhabit regions around 3–6 m high
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Cyclura
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Cyclura is a genus of lizards in the family Iguanidae. Member species of this genus are known as cycluras or more commonly as rock iguanas. Rock iguanas have a degree of endemism, with a single species or subspecies restricted to individual islands. The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek cyclos meaning circular and ourá meaning tail, currently, there are nine described species and eight subspecies identified in this genus. These are nonvolcanic islands made up of eroded limestone which form natural caves that the iguanas use as retreats. All rock iguanas are herbivorous, consuming leaves, flowers, berries, a study in 2000 by Allison Alberts of the San Diego Zoo revealed that seeds passing through the digestive tracts of rock iguanas germinate more rapidly than those that do not. These seeds in the fruits consumed by cycluras have an advantage by sprouting before the end of very short rainy seasons. Their diet is very rarely supplemented with insect larvae, crabs, slugs, dead birds, unlike mammals, reptile kidneys cannot concentrate urine to save on water intake. Instead reptiles excrete toxic nitrogenous wastes as uric acid through their cloaca. In the case of the rock iguana which consumes large amounts of vegetation, the record for the longest lived captive-born rock iguana is held by a Lesser Caymans iguana, which lived for 33 years in captivity. A blue iguana captured on Grand Cayman in 1950 by naturalist Ira Thompson was imported to the United States in 1985 by Ramon Noegel and sold to reptile importer and breeder, Crutchfield loaned this iguana to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas in 1997. The lizard was named Godzilla by the zoo staff and was kept until his death in 2004, Thompson estimated the iguana to be 15 years of age at the time of its capture. This lizard may have been the words longest-living recorded lizard at 69 years of age, although the particulars vary slightly among species and subspecies, the rock iguanas reach sexual maturity at three to seven years of age. Females become sexually mature at two to five years of age, males can be highly territorial with the notable exception of the Exuma Island iguana. Mating takes place at the beginning of or just prior to the first rainy season of the year, females lay from 2 to 34 eggs, with an average clutch size of 17 within 40 days. Females of most species guard their nests for several days after laying their eggs and it has been noted that Cyclura eggs are among the largest lizard eggs produced in the world. Every species and subspecies of rock iguana is endangered, in 1990, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association designated the genus Cyclura as their highest priority. Their first project was a breeding program for the Grand Cayman iguana
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Curly-tailed lizards
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The curly-tailed lizards are a family, Leiocephalidae, of lizards which are widely distributed throughout much of the Caribbean, but are relatively unstudied. They were previously regarded as members of subfamily Leiocephalinae within the family Tropiduridae, there are presently 29 known species. Leiocephalus is the genus in the family Leiocephalidae. The following species and subspecies, listed alphabetically by name, are recognized as being valid. A Description of a new Genus and some new species of Saurian Reptiles, a Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No.1, pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
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Dwarf boa
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The Tropidophiidae, common name dwarf boas, are a family of nonvenomous snakes found from Mexico and the West Indies south to southeastern Brazil. These are small to medium-sized fossorial snakes, some with beautiful, currently, four living genera, containing 22 species, and one extinct genus, with one species, are recognized. This family is confined to the neotropics, mainly in Hispaniola, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands, with the greatest diversity being in Cuba and these snakes are very small, averaging to about 30–60 cm in total length. Most species spend their day burrowed underground or under vegetation, surfacing only at night or when it rains, some species are arboreal and are often seen hiding in bromeliads in trees. The dwarf boas can change color from light to dark and this color change is brought about by the movement of dark pigment granules. When threatened, tropidophiids coil up into a tight ball, a more peculiar defensive behavior is their ability to bleed voluntarily from the eyes, mouth, and nostrils. List of tropidophiid species and subspecies Tropidophiidae by common name Tropidophiidae by taxonomic synonyms List of snakes, Tropidophiidae at the Reptarium. cz Reptile Database. Tropidophiidae at Life is Short but Snakes are Long
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Extinction
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In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms, normally a species. The moment of extinction is considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed. Because a species range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult. This difficulty leads to such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly reappears after a period of apparent absence. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to five billion species. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been firmly established. Mass extinctions are relatively rare events, however, isolated extinctions are quite common, only recently have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the current high rate of extinctions. Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented, some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100. A dagger symbol next to a name is often used to indicate its extinction. A species is extinct when the last existing member dies, Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that can reproduce and create a new generation. Pinpointing the extinction of a species requires a definition of that species. If it is to be declared extinct, the species in question must be distinguishable from any ancestor or daughter species. Extinction of a plays a key role in the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis of Stephen Jay Gould. In ecology, extinction is often used informally to refer to local extinction, in which a species ceases to exist in the area of study. This phenomenon is known as extirpation. Local extinctions may be followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations, species which are not extinct are termed extant. Those that are extant but threatened by extinction are referred to as threatened or endangered species, currently an important aspect of extinction is human attempts to preserve critically endangered species
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Feral cat
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A feral cat is a cat that has been born to other ferals or from stray cats as opposed to domesticated cats. These ferals are unaccustomed to human interaction, Feral cats are usually considered to be distinct from stray cats, which are socialized cats who no longer live in homes, but could potentially be reintroduced successfully. This article discusses the definition, history, behavior, health, distribution and habitat, control and management, further subtopics include the definition, behaviors and characteristics of both farm cats and ships cats and how they relate to feral cats. Feral is an adjective defined as existing in a wild state and it can also be used to describe a quality of wild animals as ferocious or brutal. The meaning of the feral cat varies between professions and countries, and is sometimes used interchangeably with other terms such as free-roaming, street, alley. Stray cats are socialized cats who no longer live in homes, a survey of rescuers and veterinarians in the United States found that there was no widely accepted definition of a feral cat. Many facilities used waiting periods to evaluate whether a cat was feral by observing whether the cat became less afraid, other indicators included the cats response to touch with an inanimate object, and observation of social behavior from the cat in varying environments. The Australian government categorizes cats who have no interaction with or assistance from humans as feral, farm cats are cats that live on agricultural properties in feral or semi-feral condition. They primarily live outdoors, usually sheltering in outbuildings and they hunt vermin such as rodents and other small animals that live in or around outbuildings and farm fields. The need to keep rodents from consuming or contaminating grain crops stored for human consumption may be the original reason cats were domesticated. They are still commonly kept for the purpose of catching undesired vermin found on farms and ranches, ships cats are typically feral or semi-feral, and were once common features on many trading, exploration, and naval ships. Cats were primarily brought aboard to catch mice and rats, which can cause damage to ropes, woodwork, rodents also presented a threat to the stores the ship carried, both as cargo and as food for sailors. Rats and mice were also sources of disease, which was dangerous for ships at sea for long periods of time, Cats have been officially banned from some commercial and military fleets, though they are sometimes still kept privately by sailors. Traders from Phoenicia brought them to Europe to control rat populations, roman armies also helped with the spread, eventually bringing them to England. Since then, cats continued to be introduced to new areas, Cats are thought to have been introduced to Australia in either the 1600s by Dutch shipwrecks, or the late 1700s by English settlers. These domesticated cats began to form feral populations after their offspring began living away from human contact, some behaviors are commonly observed among feral cats, although there is disagreement among veterinarians, rescuers, and researchers on the prevalence of some. In a free-roaming environment, feral cats avoid humans and they do not allow themselves to be handled or touched by humans, and back away or run when they are able to do so. If trapped, they may hiss, growl, bare their teeth and they remain fairly hidden from humans and will not approach, although some feral cats gradually become more comfortable around humans who feed them regularly
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Free-ranging dog
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A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not contained. Free-ranging dogs include wild dogs, feral dogs, stray dogs, street dogs, the term is used when distinctions of ownership are irrelevant. It sometimes overlaps with the term pariah dog. The World Health Organization reports that there are 200 million stray dogs worldwide, ecologists find it important at times to distinguish between urban free-ranging dogs and rural free-ranging dogs. The distinction can be important as the impact of and evolutionary pressures on these groups can be quite different. Rural free-ranging dogs that rarely if ever leave a settlement are called village dogs and they are considered neither wild nor feral, and have less impact on the surrounding ecosystem than other rural free-ranging dogs. They pose a different set of environmental pressures than feral or wild dogs, experts on the behavior of early and primitive dogs have also noted interesting physical and behavioral differences between village dogs and other more feral free-ranging dogs. For example, village dogs tend to be smaller and occur more often alone or in pairs, village dogs include the African village dog and East Asian village dog, two types that were the earliest to be domesticated. The term pariah dog has been used inconsistently, but is used synonymously, if incorrectly. Originally, it referred to the landrace of free-ranging dogs native to India and it later came to be used for primitive natural breeds of dogs of a similar physical appearance in other parts of the world. Pariah dogs are canines that have close to the original form and have evolved with little or no purposeful human intervention. Pariahs in all countries tend toward a similar, typical morphology known as the long-term pariah morphotype. This primal body design resembles the ancient breeds from which most other dog forms derive, typically, these canids have a spitz-like appearance, a wedge-shaped head with a pointed muzzle, almond eyes, erect ears, and a long, tail curved over the back. Unlike modern breeds, pariah dogs have one annual estrus cycle, experts in free-ranging dog control sometimes distinguish between stray dogs and feral dogs. Stray refers to lost and abandoned pets, or others that had socialized to humans before taking to the free-ranging life—and feral to dogs that have lived all their lives apart from people, Feral implies the progeny of formerly domesticated animals, run wild, having escaped from domestication. They may scavenge for food on the periphery of human populations, in other contexts, and generally in Indian English, the term stray dog covers both feral dogs and dogs that have strayed from their owners. India has a population of feral dogs numbering in the tens of millions, the highest in the world, wild dog may refer to, Feral populations of domestic dog. Wild populations of dogs classified as different subspecies from the domestic dog and they are commonly contrasted with canids labeled dogs in other contexts, and are generally not capable of fertile if any offspring with members of genus Canis
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Feral pig
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The feral pig is a pig living in the wild, but which has descended from escaped domesticated individuals in both the old and new worlds. The term razorback has also appeared in Australia, to feral pigs there. A feral pig is a pig that has escaped or been released into the wild. Zoologists generally exclude from the feral animals that, although captive, were genuinely wild before they escaped. Likewise, reintroduced wild boars in Western Europe are also not considered feral, in the UK, wild boar can be farmed under licence. However, it is illegal to release them into the wild, there are established populations of feral wild boar in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. These are often active during the daytime and are wary of people. This is in contrast to populations in East Sussex which are nocturnal, groups of feral wild boar have been reported in the Scottish Highlands including Invermoriston, near Loch Ness, and between Newtonmore and Laggan. A group believed to be a mix of wild boar and domestic pig that escaped from a farm, have seen in the Strathnairn area near Inverness. Feral wild boar occur elsewhere in the UK according to the Department for Environment, Food and it said between one- and two-hundred were estimated to be in Kent and East Sussex and about twenty to thirty in West Dorset. The practice of introducing domestic pigs into the New World persisted throughout the periods of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Eurasian wild boar, which ranged from Great Britain to European Russia may have also been introduced. By the nineteenth century, their numbers were sufficient in some such as the Southern United States to become a common game animal. The first recorded release of pigs in Australia was made by Captain James Cook at Adventure Bay and this was part of his policy of introducing animals and plants to newly discovered countries. He carried them about a mile within the woods at the head of the bay, the deliberate introduction of pigs into previously pig-free areas seems to have been common. As recently as the early 1970s, pigs were introduced to Babel Island and these pigs were eradicated by Department of Agriculture staff with local assistance. One common story about the pig population on Flinders Island is that pigs were released when the ship City of Foo Chow went ashore on the northeast coast of the Island in March 1877. On Flinders Island, feral pigs usually invade agricultural areas adjacent to the National Park, farmers consider damage caused by the pigs to be minor as it is restricted to rooting in pasture adjacent to scrub-land edges
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Elkhorn coral
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Elkhorn coral is considered to be one of the most important reef-building corals in the Caribbean, although current populations have been decimated by white band disease and have yet to fully recover. This species is complex with many large branches. The coral structure resembles that of elk antlers and these branches create habitats for many other reef species, such as lobsters, parrot-fish, snapper shrimps and other reef fish. Elkhorn coral colonies are incredibly fast-growing, with a growth rate of 5 to 10 cm per year. The color of coral species ranges from brown to a yellowish-brown as a result of the symbiotic zooxanthellae living inside the tissue of this coral species. Zooxanthellae are a type of algae which photosynthesize to provide the coral with nutrients, the zooxanthellae are also capable of removing waste products from the coral. The degree to which local stands reproduce by fragmentation varies across the Caribbean, sexual reproduction occurs once a year in August or September when coral colonies release millions of gametes by broadcast spawning. Elkhorn coral provides many homes for sealife and great scuba trips, Elkhorn coral exist in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Florida Keys. Its range reaches as far north as Biscayne National Park, Florida, however, at least in part as a result of climate change, the range of elkhorn coral has expanded northward along the Florida peninsula and into the northern parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Elkhorn corals are found primarily in shallow waters with temperatures between 26 and 30 °C, and with significant water movement. They are one of the most abundant species in waters ranging from 1 to 5 m deep, Elkhorn coral was once one of the most abundant species of coral in the Caribbean and the Florida Keys. Since 1980, an estimated 90-95% of elkhorn coral has been lost, threats include disease, coral bleaching, predation, climate change, storm damage, and human activity. All of these factors have created an effect that greatly diminishes the survival. Natural recovery of coral is a process, and may never occur with this species because so many factors inhibit its survival. Diseases that affect elkhorn coral include white pox disease, white band disease, white pox disease, which only affects elkhorn coral, is caused by a fecal enterobacterium, Serratia marcescens. The disease is contagious and commonly moves from one colony to its nearest neighbor. White pox creates white lesions on the skeleton and results in an average tissue loss of 2.5 cm2 per day. White band disease and black band disease have also reduced the abundance of elkhorn coral
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James Buchanan
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James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States, serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He is the president from Pennsylvania, the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. Beginning in the 1820s, he represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election, on a ticket with former Kentucky Representative John C. He defeated both the incumbent President Pierce and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas to win the nomination and his subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race against Republican John C. Shortly after taking office, Buchanan lobbied the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford. He allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas to the Union as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. In the process, he alienated both Republican abolitionists and Northern Democrats, most of whom supported the principle of sovereignty in determining a new states slaveholding status. He was often called a doughface, a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and he fought with Douglas, in the midst of the growing sectional crisis, the Panic of 1857 struck the nation. Buchanan indicated in his 1857 inaugural address that he would not seek a second term, he kept his word, Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election. In response, seven Southern states declared their secession from the Union, Buchanans view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal, and so didnt confront the new polity militarily. Buchanan, an attorney, was noted for his mantra, I acknowledge no master, Buchanan supported the United States during the Civil War, and publicly defended himself against charges that he was responsible for the Civil War. Shortly after the Union victory, he published his memoirs, Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of Rebellion and he died in 1868 at age 77. Buchanan aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, historians who participated in a 2006 survey voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made. His parents were both of Ulster Scots descent, the father having emigrated from Milford, County Donegal, Ireland, one of eleven siblings, Buchanan was the oldest child in the family to survive infancy. Shortly after Buchanans birth the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Buchanans father became the wealthiest person in town, becoming a prosperous merchant and investing in real estate. The family home in Mercersburg was later turned into the James Buchanan Hotel, Buchanan attended the village academy and, starting in 1807, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Though he was expelled at one point for poor behavior, he pleaded for a second chance. Later that year, he moved to Lancaster, which, at the time, was the capital of Pennsylvania, James Hopkins, the most prominent lawyer in Lancaster, accepted Buchanan as a student, and in 1812 Buchanan was admitted to the bar after an oral exam
