Coral Reefs Codexery

Clipperton Island

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The only land animals known to exist are two reptile species, bright-orange land crabs, birds, and ship rats.[1] The island is currently free of human settlement but is subject to anthropic interactions.[2] In the eastern Pacific Ocean, there exists an 8.9 km² uninhabited coral atoll known as Clipperton Island.[3]

Biology and range

The atoll features a low elevation, is mostly devoid of vegetation, and supports only sparse grasses along with a limited number of coconut palm clusters.[4] Terrestrial fauna is limited to the Pacific stump-toed gecko, the copper-tailed skink, Clipperton crabs (Johngarthia oceanica), various bird species, and ship rats.[1] It is believed that ship rats colonized the island following the grounding of large fishing vessels there in 1999 and 2000.[5] Avian life is abundant, with thirteen species confirmed to nest on the atoll and an additional twenty-six species recorded as transient visitors.[6]

Due to a substantial breeding colony of masked boobies, where 110,000 individual birds have been counted, the island has been designated an Important Bird Area.[6] The lagoon lacks any fish population, is generally shallow across most of its extent, but contains several deep basins reaching depths between 43 and 72 meters.[7] The coral reefs encircling Clipperton exhibit an exceptionally high level of endemic species, with over 115 distinct species having been documented there.[8]

What the specialist sources record

Tchekémian notes that Clipperton has large colonies of seabirds, land crabs, and recently rats, which are engaged in an interspecific struggle.[2] The same source states that millions of individual land crabs form an important colony on Clipperton.[2] Wheeler reports that only three expeditions to Clipperton, in 1938, 1994, and 2005, are known to have returned with sponges, retrieving about 190 specimens representing 20 species.[9] Wheeler also notes that Clipperton's marine habitats have several endemic species, including coral, molluscs, and fish.[9]

Tchekémian describes the island as an in situ and in vivo laboratory for long-term scientific study.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ineich, "Nomenclatural Status of Emoia cyanura (Lacertilia, Scincidae) Populations in the Central Pacific", Copeia, 1991-12-13, p. 1132; Zug, "Reptiles and Amphibians of the Pacific Islands: A Comprehensive Guide", University of California Press, 2013, p. 45; Davie, "Johngarthia planata (Stimpson, 1860)", 2015; Perger, "Johngarthia oceanica (Perger, 2019)", 2019; Sanvicente-Añorve, "Body Growth Pattern of an Isolated Land Crab Species (Johngarthia planata) (Decapoda, Gercarcinidae) From the Eastern Tropical Pacific: an Ecological Appr en.wikipedia.org
  2. Tchekémian, "Clipperton, seul territoire français dans l'océan Pacifique nord-oriental: quels enjeux environnementaux et géopolitiques?", Études caribiéennes, 2022. facts only, no text reused. journals.openedition.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Glynn, "Clipperton Atoll (eastern Pacific): oceanography, geomorphology, reef-building coral ecology and biogeography", Coral Reefs, June 1996, p. 71–99; Morrell, "A Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Sea, North and South, Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethiopic and Southern Atlantic Ocean, Indian and Antarctic Ocean from the Years 1822 to 1831", Harper & Brothers, 1841, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sacotte, "Dx pedition on Clipperton", 1978 Dxpedition to Clipperton Atoll, March 1, 1978; Jost, "Flora and Vegetation of Clipperton (La Passion) Atoll, North-Eastern Pacific Ocean: Three Centuries of Changes and Recent Plant Dynamics", Atoll Research Bulletin, 2019-06-06, p. 1–31; "Clipperton Island pictures and history", QSL.net; Pogoreutz, "High live coral cover and incidence of a pink-spotted coral phenotype on remote reefs off Clipperton Island, Tropical Eastern Pacific", Marine Biology, 2022, p. 115; ; Tchekémian, "Clipperton, se en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pitman, "Clipperton Island: Pigsty, Rat Hole, and Booby Prize", Marine Ornithology, 2005, p. 193–194 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Morrell, "A Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Sea, North and South, Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethiopic and Southern Atlantic Ocean, Indian and Antarctic Ocean from the Years 1822 to 1831", Harper & Brothers, 1841,; Jost, "L'Atoll de Clipperton (Île de la Passion): Biodiversité, Menaces, et Recommandations pour sa Conservation. Rapport au Gouvernement de la France. Août 2016.", CRIOBE, 2016, p. 10; "Important Bird Areas factsheet: Clipperton", Datazone.BirdLife.org, 2018; VanderWerf, "Identification and Distribution of the Brown en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Belcher, 10 June 1839; Jost 2003; Shor, "Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Probing the Oceans, 1936 to 1976", Tofua Press, 1978; Maragos, "Pacific Coral Reefs: An Introduction", Springer Netherlands, 2011, p. 753–776; Carricart-Ganivet, "New and Previous Records of Scleractinian Corals from Clipperton Atoll, Eastern Pacific", Pacific Science, 1999, p. 370–375; Charpy, "Global Change: Mankind-Marine Environment Interactions", Springer Netherlands, 2010, p. 351–356 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Clipperton Island" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Allen, "Conservation hotspots of biodiversity and endemism for Indo-Pacific coral reef fishes", Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2008, p. 541–556; Crane, "Clipperton Atoll as a model to study small marine populations: Endemism and the genomic consequences of small population size", PLOS ONE, 2018-06-27; Allen Robertson 1997 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wheeler, "New to nature No 80: Callyspongia roosevelti", The Guardian, 2012-08-11. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Clipperton Island (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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