Times of the Islands Winter 2022/23

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green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources While much of the attention to Turk & Caicos Islands’ natural beauty is focused on the sea, our terrestrial habitats and the plant communities on which they are based are why we are here at all. We often don’t notice plants; they form a verdant but taken-for-granted backdrop that often goes unseen until they are missing; a phenomenon known to science as “plant blindness.” Many of these plants are unique regionally, some only to the Turks & Caicos Islands, but we have only just begun to understand the natural services they provide us. Researching and protecting our native plants is the focus of a new conservation project. The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (RBG Kew) and the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources (DECR) have partnered on the Darwin Plus 114, “Tropical Important Plant Areas and Important Plant Species in the Turks & Caicos Islands” project, supported by the United Kingdom’s Darwin Plus grant programme. Although partnership on this project began in 2019, its official launch was delayed to 2022 due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, along with restructuring within both DECR and RBG Kew. Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) are a network of key sites that are identified by criteria regarding threatened species, imperilled habitats, and botanical richness using scientifically robust data. TIPAs are not legal designations, but a means to identify the most important sites for wild plant diversity and to guide and inform the management and protection of those populations and habitats. Identifying TIPAs will help prevent the global loss of plant diversity, whilst safeguarding the role of plants as primary producers and providers of ecosystem infrastructure, products, and services. The TIPAs TCI project has identified 57 priority species, of which 8 are endemic to the Turks & Caicos and 56 are range-restricted species. The main objective of the project is identifying areas that qualify as TIPAs under the criteria set by Plantlife International, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and RBG Kew; and to map a TIPAs network for TCI. The project also aims to resolve taxonomic issues regarding the unique populations of Encyclia and Agave species using genomic methods, and conduct IUCN Red Listing of endemic and near-endemic plants centred in the Turks & Caicos Islands over the three-year duration of this project. In addition, the project plans to train DECR This spirit specimen was collected from Encyclia caicensis in Mudjin Harbor, Middle Caicos. staff both in the field in TCI and at the Herbarium and Tropical Nursery at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK), to collect and store the seeds of threatened species, to promote plant conservation in TCI, and to identify socially, economically, or culturally valuable species. Following the TCI TIPAs Launch Workshop in May 2022, the DECR and RBG Kew teams began conducting vegetative surveys on Middle and North Caicos, collecting herbarium, spirit and DNA specimens of flowering Encyclia caicensis while geotagging their populations. Although Encyclia caicensis is one of the eight endemic species, two Middle Caicos populations were prioritised due to their flowers blooming half a year off from the species description, which may allude to it being genetically dissimilar and possibly a new variety, subspecies, or even species to science. This possibility is also true for Agave millspaughii, however, despite growing to heights of five metres, they are far rarer and prove to be harder to find when you compare it to the ever-so fragrant and vibrantly coloured Encyclia caicensis. For the remainder of 2022, both teams will continue their surveys and collections in Providenciales, West Caicos, Salt Cay, and Grand Turk, following the various blooming periods of the Encyclia species and documenting populations of rare and endemic plants throughout the Islands. a Dodly Prosper is a Grand Turk Terrestrial Ecologist, based in North Caicos. B Naqqi Manco is a botanist and Assistant Director of Research and Development, also based in North Caicos. Both are researchers for the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources. B NAQQI MANCO 40 www.timespub.tc
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources A flamingo tongue snail (Cyphoma gibbosum) perches on a small gorgonian (Gorgonia ventalina) during a night dive near South Caicos. The relationship between the two blur the lines between predation and parasitism. Home Is Where the Food Is The Flamingo tongue snail: Predator and parasite. It’s easy to conjure images of predation: a lion pouncing on its prey, an owl hunting for mice, a spider entwining a fly in its web. Similarly, one can picture classic examples of parasitism: a tapeworm, fleas on a dog, the tick that ruined a summer camping trip. In nature, however, there exist complex relationships that don’t fit neatly into these simple examples, and some that even blur the lines between predation and parasitism. By Corinne Pita (University of Michigan) and Julia de los Reyes (Yale University), The School for Field Studies Center for Marine Resource Studies, South Caicos Photos By Dr. C.E. O’Brien Times of the Islands Winter 2022/23 41
Page 1 and 2: TIMES OF THE SAMPLING THE SOUL OF T
Page 4 and 5: contents Departments 6 From the Edi
Page 6 and 7: from the editor MICHAEL MORTON—WW
Page 8 and 9: The Leading Private Bank in the Tur
Page 11: Building Your Vision, Delivering Ex
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Page 24 and 25: Hutias were everywhere at GTMO. The
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Page 58 and 59: History In 1989, the Provo Golf and
Page 60: GARY JAMES—PROVO PICTURES This bi
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Times of the Islands Winter 2022/23

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