Pohnpei Micronesia Bill Raynor , of the Nature Conservancy here on Pohnpei, gave a presentation to the SC 250 Botany students on biodiversity and the impact of invasive plants on Pohnpei. The talk included a walking look at local invasives in Palikir. Bill started with a talk on the meaning of biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the many different forms of life.
He noted that the Nature Conservancy seeks to protect biodiversity by protecting lands and waters as well as the plants and animals that belong in a given place. Plants brought from elsewhere by natural acts prior to the arrival of man. These plants, while not unique to Pohnpei, have been here for ten of thousands of years. After the volcanic birth of Pohnpei some eight million years ago, cyanobacteria, mosses, then ferns, and probably a few seed plants arrived on Pohnpei and began to grow. Endemics are plants that arrived as natives possibly millions of years ago and evolved into unique species as they adapted to the environment of Pohnpei.