science

Phoenix Islands Protected Area

Phoenix Islands Protected Area is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Phoenix Islands Protected Area rather than just read about it. In short: The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is located in the Republic of Kiribati, an ocean nation in the central Pacific approximately midway between Australia and Hawaii. PIPA constitutes 11.34% of Kiribati's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and with a size of 408,250 km2 (157,630 sq mi), it is one of the largest marine protected areas (MPA) and one of the largest protected areas of any type (land or sea) on Earth.

Key takeaways

Phoenix Islands Protected Area belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Phoenix Islands Protected Area to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Phoenix Islands Protected Area from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is located in the Republic of Kiribati, an ocean nation in the central Pacific approximately midway between Australia and Hawaii. PIPA constitutes 11.34% of Kiribati's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and with a size of 408,250 km2 (157,630 sq mi), it is one of the largest marine protected areas (MPA) and one of the largest protected areas of any type (land or sea) on Earth. The PIPA was also designated as the world's largest and deepest UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. The PIPA conserves one of the world's largest intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, includes 14 known underwater seamounts (presumed to be extinct volcanoes) and other deep-sea habitats. The area contains approximately 800 known species of fauna, including about 200 coral species, 500 fish species, 18 marine mammals and 44 bird species. In total it is equivalent to the size of the state of California in the US, though the total land area is only 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi). To the north of the PIPA is the U.S. administered Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument that is currently the world's largest designated MPA.

History and administration

The Republic of Kiribati, in partnership with the non-governmental conservation organizations Conservation International and the New England Aquarium, has formed the Phoenix Island Protected Area Conservation Trust (PIPA Trust). In 2018, the New England Aquarium resigned as a partner and the Aquarium of the Pacific joined the PIPA Trust Board. Management and protection requirements necessary to maintain the values of this MPA are reflected both in the current interim management measures and the recently approved management plan. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

Zonation Permits The administrators of the reserve had been criticized for the amount of fishing they allowed prior to full closure on January 1, 2015. As of Jan 1, 2015, all commercial extractive activities (including tuna fishing) are prohibited throughout the MPA. Only a small sustainable-use zone around Canton Island allows for limited activities to support the resident population. In the PIPA Management Plan 2015–2020, which was implemented following a Kiribati government decision in January 2014, there is a total ban on commercial fishing within the PIPA boundaries including the territorial sea (to 12 nm) and all lagoons of the 8 PIPA islands, (Kanton, Manra, Rawaki, Birnie, McKean, Enderbury, Nikumaroro and Orona) to ensure there is no impact to marine and terrestrial species including habitats. In November 2021, it was announced that the Kiribati government would terminate the protected area to boost tuna fishing. The area was officially reopened to commercial fishing in 2023.

Natural heritage

There are three atolls with associated lagoons and perimeter coral reefs in the PIPA (Orona (Hull), Nikumaroro (Gardner), and Kanton (Aba-Riringa)), and five low islands surrounded by fringing reefs (Manra (Sydney), Rawaki (Phoenix), McKean, Birnie and Enderbury), and also two submerged reefs (Winslow and Carondelet). The area contains seven main habitats: island, lagoon, coral reef, deep reef, sea mount, deep benthos, and open ocean, which are all represented within the protected zone. The 2000 surveys (Obura, et al.) in the Phoenix Islands (Orona (Hull), Nikumaroro (Gardner), and Kanton (Aba-Riringa)), five low reef islands surrounded by coral reefs (Manra (Sydney), Rawaki (Phoenix), McKean and Enderbury) identify that, at the time of these surveys, the reefs were in an excellent state of health, and free from the bleaching that has plagued reefs in other parts of the Pacific with no evidence of any coral diseases. The coral reefs of the Phoenix Islands were notable for their moderate Live Coral Cover (LCC) of 20-40% and evidence of high physical breakage of coral by wave energy on the southern, eastern and northern reefs of the islands, which create coral rubble in the lagoons and base of the reefs. The dominant bottom cover of the lagoons was hard coral (36.0%), followed by coralline algae (red algae) (18.0%), coral rubble (16.7%), turf and fleshy algae (11.6%) and Halimeda (green macroalgae) (10.4%). The dominance of coral and coralline algae indicates healthy reef ecosystems dominated by calcifying organisms and active reef framework growth. The effect of exposure to storms is indicated by the dominance trends with storm resistant encrusting/submassive forms in windward sites, its somewhat lower abundance at leeward sites and a corresponding increase in more delicate plate forms, and the dominance of the more fragile table and staghorn corals in protected lagoon sites. Coral species diversity is higher on the larger islands of Nikumaroro, Kanton and Orona, which indicates the importance of the larger area of reef on these islands for support of biodiversity. Carpeting soft corals (Sinularia and Lobophytum) were found at the bottom of the lagoons of Kanton and Orona, which are the only true lagoons in the Phoenix Islands. Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), cushion star and other coral predators, such as the corallivorous snail Drupella spp., are found on the reefs of the Phoenix Islands, although there has not been any indication of destructive outbreaks of those predators on the reefs. Species of giant clam (Tridacna) occur in low numbers: Tridacna squamosa; Tridacna maxima; but not Tridacna gigas. Two submerged reefs, Winslow and Carondelet, and at least 14 known seamounts together with open ocean and deep-sea habitat are an integral part of the PIPA. The New England Aquarium (NEAq), Boston University (BU), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Sea Education Association (SEA), and Schmidt Ocean Institute have carried out scientific research expeditions of these seamount habitats, which have been identified being rich in deep-water coral and biodiversity supporting a variety of oceanic pelagic species. PIPA has been identified as an important feeding and spawning site for the tuna species. The dominant taxonomic group in the deep sea across all depths were the octocorals, followed by antipatharians, scleractinians, and then zoantharians.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phoenix Islands Protected Area

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phoenix Islands Protected Area claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Phoenix Islands Protected Area before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Phoenix Islands Protected Area ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Phoenix Islands Protected Area

In research: Phoenix Islands Protected Area appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Phoenix Islands Protected Area in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Phoenix Islands Protected Area is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2008 establishments in Kiribati, Environment of Kiribati, Geography of Kiribati, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phoenix Islands Protected Area outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Phoenix Islands Protected Area in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Phoenix Islands Protected Area means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Phoenix Islands Protected Area out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Phoenix Islands Protected Area in simple terms?

Why does Phoenix Islands Protected Area matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Phoenix Islands Protected Area?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Phoenix Islands Protected Area.