Share this item

Connect with Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)

Contact this content partner to get more information about this item.

Invasive rat eradication strongly impacts plant recruitment on a tropical atoll

Description:
Rat eradication has become a common conservation intervention in island ecosystems and its effectiveness in protecting native vertebrates is increasingly well documented. Yet, the impacts of rat eradication on plant communities remain poorly understood. Here we compare native and non-native tree and palm seedling abundance before and after eradication of invasive rats (Rattus Rattus) from Palmyra Atoll, Line Islands, Central Pacific Ocean. Overall, seedling recruitment increased for five of the six native trees species examined. While pre-eradication monitoring found no seedlings of Pisonia grandis, a dominant tree species that is important throughout the Pacific region, post-eradication monitoring documented a notable recruitment event immediately following eradication, with up to 688 individual P. grandis seedlings per 100m2 recorded one month post-eradication. Two other locally rare native trees with no observed recruitment in pre-eradication surveys had recruitment post-rat eradication. However, we also found, by five years post-eradication, a 13-fold increase in recruitment of the naturalized and range-expanding coconut palm Cocos nucifera. Our results emphasize the strong effects that a rat eradication can have on tree recruitment with expected long-term effects on canopy composition. Rat eradication released nonnative C. nucifera, likely with long-term implications for community composition, potentially necessitating future management interventions. Eradication, nevertheless, greatly benefited recruitment of native tree species. If this pattern persists over time, we expect long-term benefits for flora and fauna dependent on these native species.
Display date:
2018
Collections:
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
Publisher:
Island Conservation
Content partner:
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
Availability:
Not specified
Remember or recognise anything about this item? Let us know!

We would love to share your stories, thoughts, and memories on digitalpasifik.org

Contribute your story
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
Welcome and warm Pasifik greetings

The information on this site has been gathered from our content partners.

The names, terms, and labels that we present on the site may contain images or voices of deceased persons and may also reflect the bias, norms, and perspective of the period of time in which they were created. We accept that these may not be appropriate today.

If you have any concerns or questions about an item, please contact us.