Chapter I Intro & Objectives - SPREP

PHOENIX ISLANDS PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN
Chapter III. Background, 1. Physical Setting of the Islands
Draft 1 March 2007
Mueller-Dombois (1999) noted that there was a precarious dry zone centered on the Phoenix
Islands (see Figure III-1.38). It was precarious because of the unpredictable fluctuations
including occasional wet years (Stoddard and Walsch 1992).
Figure III-1.38. Central Pacific atolls including the Phoenix Islands,
plotted by latitude and by mean annual rainfall
(source: Mueller-Dombois 1999).
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