Preface
-olumes of The Natural History of Enewetak
sve research done at the Mid-Pacific Research
ory from 1954 to 1984 under the auspices of the
“apartment of Energy. The history of the laboratory and
the reasons for its support by the United States Department of Energy are described in Chapter 1 of Volume I
Over a thousand persons—established scientists, their
assistants, and graduate students—conducted research at
che laboratory during the 30-year perisd. Their efforts
“led in 223 publications. These have been collected in
“imes of reprints entitled Mid-Pacific Marine Laborairiputions, 1955-1979, U. S. Department. of
,.. Publication NVO 628-1. The laboratory has con:
Bishop Museum in Honolulu and the U. S. National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Wash-
ington, D. C.
In addition to the species checklists. each chapter in
Volume Il provides a succinct summary of the biota with
respect to endemism, range extensions, and other features
that set the Enewetak biota apart from those one might
expect to find on equivalent Indo-Pacific islands. This compendium of taxonomic information for an atoll should
prove of immense value to scientists interested in biogeog-
raphy and evolutionary biology of island ecosystems for
years to come.
One of the problems of editing these volumes has been
vinuvd operation on a limited scale to the present. A col:
the correct use of place names. In some cases authors
Murine Science, Volume 38. 1986.
the native names. Even the native names have changed
lection of papers recently appeared in the Bulletin of
Much of the research conducted at the laboratory was
on the marine environment. The reason was that the
majority of scientists applying to work at Enewetak were
‘narme biologists. For many, this was the first opportunity
-, the biota of a coral atoll. Fewer studies were con-
used the military code names for islands while others used
from early phonetic spellings to the spellings currently in
use and preferred by the Enewetak people. For example,
the name of the atoll has changed from Eniwetok to
Enewetak, and, although the correct current spelling is
used throughout, the old spelling occurs in older references
biota.
and maps which appear in these volumes. Maps giving the
military code names and the native names preferred by the
Enewetak people are located in Chapter 1 of Volume I.
Surprisingly, it is difficult to determine the exact numberof
islands. Due to the effects of storms. small islands are
_ephemeral, and two islands and part of a third were ob
literated by nuclear explosions. Currently there are 39 rec:
ognizable islands, and these are shown on the map used
throughout the book.
.sily of research carried out by many scientists for
néay years. In contrast, the chapters on meteorology and
oceanography summarize research carried out under one
ical surveys and studies which have been conducted by the
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, University of California,
1
the
terrestrial
environment
and
its
.s.verineless, as these volumes attest, the coverage is
amazingly complete and thorough, and there are few, if
any, studies of an equivalent ecosystem that equa! the
total research effort reported in these volumes.
Volume I provides a synthesis of the research carried
out under the subject headings of the respective chapters.
Certain of the chapters, e.g., those on geology, subtidal
ana i
‘2 intertidal environments and ecology, and those on reef.
*sses and trophic relationships, summarize a great
integrated program involving fewer scientists working over
@ shorter period.
Volume il of The Natural History of Enewetak Atoll
provides information on the taxonomy of animals and
plants known to occur at Enewetak Atoll This taxonomy
“Presents a fulfillment of one of the first assignments to
laboratory—to determine the scientific names of the
xa of the atoll The collections on which the checklists
' each chapter are based are housed at the Bernice P
5002409
These volumes do not report on theextensive radiolog-
and the Radiation Laboratory, University of Washington,
also under the auspices of the U. S
Energy.
Department of
Dennis M Devaney, senior editor of this volume. disap
peared while collecting specimens off the Island of Hawaii
on August 13, 1983. Dennis was doing what he loved
best. collecting marine invertebrates. at the time of his
death He collected extensively at Enewetex. and he undertook the task of organizing the systematic chapters of
Volume ll
Beatrice | Burch. Devaney’s assistant at the