The sandy beach crew sampled beaches at two different motus yesterday and found some interesting results. Because sandy beaches tend to be low in diversity on their beach face, we changed our protocol for the Cooks to take more cores in the sand submerged in water than is our norm. As a consequence, we found multiple species of tube worms, horn snails and crabs. One of the larger motus, Motukititu, was naturally built on uplifted coral and had the highest biodiversity of the motus we have sampled. Honeymoon Island (also a motu) had the lowest diversity, although more studies need be conducted to make a clear connection between the structure/geomorphology of an island or given beach and its associated biodiversity.
Another interesting observation we have made about these moths revolves around the imprints in the sand. In California, we are so used to seeing every beach filled with divots made with footsteps, we have assumed this look to be normal. On the nearly untouched motus of Aitutaki, the beaches lack such ubiquitous divots, but do have hundreds of hermit crab tracks, shells, and pristine, smooth sand.
