Academic literature on the topic 'Marshall Island'

Recent decades have marked growing academic and scientific attention to the role of indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation, mitigation, and detection strategies. However, how indigenous knowledge is incorporated is a point of contention between self-identifying indigenous groups and existing institutions which combat climate change. In this thesis, I argue that the full inclusion of indigenous knowledge is deterred by certain aspects of modernity. In order to overcome the problems of modernity, I argue that a recognition theory of justice is needed as it regards to indigenous knowledge. Recognition justice calls for indigenous groups to retain meaningful control over how and when their indigenous knowledge is shared. To supplement this, I use the Marshall Islands as a case study. The Marshall Islands afford a nice particular case because of their longstanding colonial relationship with the United States and the impending danger they face of rising sea levels. Despite this danger, the Republic of the Marshall Islands calls for increased recognition as leaders in addressing climate change.

The Marshall Islands may be rendered uninhabitable by sea level rise and other consequences of global climate change within 50 years, a threat with which locals are increasingly familiar via educational events, firsthand environmental observation, and Biblical exegesis. This thesis explores Marshallese attitudes towards this spectre, in particular explaining why ‘ordinary’ Marshall Islanders (if not their government) have strongly favoured a response strategy based on self-blame and local mitigation, rather than other-blame and protest of industrial nations. I argue that this strategy does not stem from ignorance or disempowered pragmatism, but from a moral reading of climate change consonant with Marshallese values. Bringing together literature on traditionalism, entropy, and the cultural cognition of risk, I demonstrate that Marshallese reactions to climate change are intelligible in light of a vigorous pre-existing narrative of self-inflicted cultural decline. Climate change becomes framed as both a cause and a consequence of weakening custom, the over-reliance on foreign things, transforming global warming into a locally resonant, and indeed ideologically appealing, risk. Based upon this case study, I sketch a ‘trajectorial theory of risk perception’ and accompanying research agenda.

Both local and global threats are affecting the health of coral reefs worldwide. In addition to endangering the livelihoods and source of food for millions of people, threats to coral reefs may result in flattening reefs, which reduce habitat complexity and the ability of reefs to protect shorelines from erosion. This could be particularly detrimental to low-lying Pacific atolls like those found in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). I examined the influence of local human disturbance and heat stress on coral and algal community composition in Majuro and Arno Atolls in the RMI to explore how human disturbance affects coral and algal communities, and how to best characterize those communities. With a population of approximately 30,000 people, Majuro is home to the largest population of all of the RMI's 29 atolls and underwent extensive human modifications after American occupation during World War II. By contrast, Arno is home to fewer than 2,000 people and has remained relatively undisturbed. In June of 2016, I conducted benthic surveys at 25 sites along a gradient of human impacts across the two atolls. At each site at 10m depth, I measured percent cover of coral and algae genera and size-frequency of coral. I also utilized limited historical data to explore how reefs had recovered after a thermal stress event in 2014. In order to estimate human disturbance, I used the mean normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of the nearby coastline, which measures vegetation intensity. The coral and macroalgae composition of sites differed by atoll, mean NDVI, and wind and wave exposure, but not by sea surface temperature. The most degraded sites had low macroalgae cover and were dominated by turf algae, sponges, and cyanobacteria. One genus of macroalgae, Halimeda, was associated with sites that had low disturbance, while another, Hypnea, was correlated with higher disturbance. These results suggest that using macroalgae as an indicator of degradation may mask the influence of local human disturbance on reef community composition. Instead, it is important to consider identifying other indicator taxa and to measure coral and macroalgae cover to at least the genus level.<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>Geography, Department of<br>Graduate

The coralline soils of atolls suffer from multiple nutrient deficiencies that severely limit crop growth. This study was conducted to assess the nutrient status of the soils of the inhabited atolls within the Marshall Islands (MI), and to determine what local materials could be used to correct deficiencies limiting crop growth. Surface and subsoils from 25 atolls were collected and analyzed for their chemical properties, and soil test results were evaluated with a missing element pot study. Soil tests revealed that the MI soils were severely deficient in K (0.12 cmol c kg -1 ) and marginally deficient in Cu (0.13 ug g -1 ). The missing element study showed that the soil was deficient in K, S, N, P, and Cu. An incubation experiment and a series of greenhouse experiments were conducted to evaluate the ability of locally available organic materials to mineralize N and supply adequate nutrients to crops. Vigna marina and fish meal showed the highest N mineralization capacity, and the Gompertz equation provided the best fit. Chinese cabbage plants grew as well in soils amended with chicken manure, Vigna marina , and copra cake as they did in soil treated with chemical fertilizers. Plants grown in soil amended with fish meal did not grow as well due to inadequate K supply. Nitrogen recovery was highest in V. marina treatment at 92% followed by the chemical control (83%), chicken manure (34%), fish-meal (18%), and copra cake (9%). Added coconut leaves immobilized N and resulted in very poor cabbage growth. Comparisons between relative growth rate (RGR) and nutrient relative accumulation rate (RAR) showed that nutrients supplied from the V. marina amendment to the cabbage plant matched plant demand. In a rate experiment in the greenhouse, adding 10.1 g kg -1 of V. marina leaves (dry weight) supplied 350 mg N kg -1 to 5 week-old corn plants representing 38% of the total amount of N added in the amendment. Splitting the application quantity improved corn growth at the highest addition rate. Copra cake showed less promise as a suitable organic amendment. Supplementing copra with chemical N and P, and V. marina leaves with and without Cu and B did not improve crop growth compared with copra alone. The soil exhibited low P adsorption capacity, and corn and lettuce growth responded to high Olsen P soil levels. The results of the greenhouse experiments showed that V. marina is a potential organic fertilizer material to correct soil nutrient deficiencies for good crop growth in the Marshall Islands.

Understandings of the Marshall Islands require attention to the interplay of multiple discourses of tradition, modernity, chiefs, development, and democracy from multiple sources that critically interact and mutually construct the Marshall Islands. This multi-sited, multi-vocal ethnography explores the reproduction and transformation of historic power relationships between Marshallese chiefs and commoners who incorporate and "indigenize" foreign discourses and resources into culturally informed models and practices of authority. In relationships of unequal power, such as that defined by the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, dominant global discourses about culture and progress enable both local and transnational hegemonies. These discourses are contextually analyzed as they are invoked and challenged in Nitijela [parliament] debates, in evaluations of the Compact of Free Association, in elites' autobiographical reflections on Marshallese-American relationships, and in foreign media representations. Historical shifts in the political and economic powers of Marshallese chiefs through three colonial administrations, and the growth of a commoner elite class since World War II further highlight the ways foreign resources are appropriated for specific local purposes that transform understandings of power and authority. With discourse as both object and method of analysis, the agency of local actors is both foregrounded and contextualized. Simplistic characterizations of chiefs, elites, commoners, and foreigners' are complicated through close attention to the ways local loyalties, colonial histories, political rivalries, and global discourses inform and frame expressions of Marshallese identities.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010.<br>Thesis Advisor(s): Calvano, C. N. ; Second Reader: Whitcomb, C. "June 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 15, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Department of Defense Architectural Framework, DoDAF, Systems View, Operational View, Missile Defense. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-76). Also available in print.

The U.S. Marshallese population is one of the fastest growing Pacific Islander populations in the United States. The purpose of this study was to identify how U.S. Marshallese students could be empowered and engaged in their learning through clearly identified indicators that educators could apply within their classrooms and schools. The indicators have been established on a historical, cultural, and linked perceptions of student learning as identified by U.S. Marshallese students and teachers. Pacific Islanders consisted of a variety of populations with varying cultures and ethnic diversity. This study has been conducted using a postpositivism worldview, Marshallese migration is not a limited phenomenon of displacement, but a migratory change that must be embraced by communities and educators. Educators must understand how to empower and engage U.S. Marshallese students in their learning. This study was designed utilizing an interpretative descriptive naturalistic ethnography qualitative research design with middle school students and teachers to gather qualitative data from U.S. Marshallese students that will lead to a contextual understanding of empowering and engaging U.S. Marshallese students in their learning. The findings of this qualitative research study can be applied by educators to empower and engage U.S. Marshallese students in their learning on a daily basis in schools and classrooms. Culture understanding, positive relationship building, and the design of culturally connected intrinsically student motivated learning activities is the foundation and critical component of empowering and engaging U.S. Marshallese students in school and classrooms for improved student learning.