National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program field research records, 1961-1973
Physical Description:
1 folder
Physical Location:
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Sublocation:
Box 2, folder 15
Record type:
Fieldbook record
Object Type:
Field notes
Manuscripts
Correspondence
Research notes
Place:
Oceania
Howland Island
Date Range:
1937-1965
Start Date:
1937
End Date:
19650824
Abstract:
The Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program (POBSP) was initiated in 1962 when the Smithsonian Institution entered into a grant agreement with the Department of Defense. From January 1963 through June 1969 Smithsonian Institution employees undertook biological surveys in an area of the Pacific Ocean spanning the equator and extending from latitude 30 degrees north to 10 degrees south and from longitude 150 degrees east to 180 degrees west, an area dotted with clusters of islands and atolls. The major goals of the program were to learn what plants and animals occurred on the islands, the seasonal variations in their numbers and reproductive activities, and the distribution and population of the pelagic birds of that area. Emphasis was placed on the banding of birds in an effort to determine migration, distribution, and abundance of pelagic sea birds. During the six and a half years of field work 1,800,000 birds were banded; approximately 150,000 observations of pelagic birds at sea were made; and biological surveys of varying intensity were made on several islands. The present folder includes mainly data on Howland Island's climate, including annotated typed copies of the draft of a manuscript on the climate of Howland in relation with the study of the local fauna, one of them inscribed as "Tina's", and one dated from June 17, 1965; and copies, taken from microfilms, of weather data code sheets from 1937 on the island, with correspondence of July 9 and August 24, 1965 on the sending of the microfilms to Tina Abbott, Research Illustrator at the Division of Birds of the Smithsonian Institution Pacific Project, by William H. Haggard, acting Director of the National Weather Records Center, and Tina Abbott's answer.
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