Biodiversity Conservation on Islands

Island biodiversity represents one of the highest hotspots in the world and yet it is also a epicentre for biodiversity loss with 1% of known extinctions and 37% of critically endangered species (Spatz 2017). 

Such regions are a target for disproportionally more rapid ecological degradation as they are specifically threatened by the expansion of invasive species (Spatz 2017). This phenomenon is exacerbated by unique characteristics of islands' simplified ecosystems, which contain highly adapted and unique species with typically small population sizes, low reproductive rates, and a lack of predator defences compared with continental counterparts (Spatz 2017).

Another important consequence of such environmental dispositions is that they are more prone to human related impacts therefore reinforcing the effects on biodiversity loss (Spatz 2017). 

Furthermore, a relevant result of island-breeding loss lies in the alteration of soil fertility and thus plant and below ground communities as well as lost mutualistic interactions (Spatz 2017).

To tackle such particular challenges and reserve such trends, island restoration activities are required (Spatz 2017). "For example, invasive mammal eradications, prevention and control have provided beneficial outcomes for many threatened island endemic" (Spatz 2017). Successful strategies for re-establishment of the ecosystems must also rely on valuable data portraying potential spatial overlap between island breeding and damaging invasive species in order to deploy the most accurate action plan (Spatz 2017). 

Some biogeographic patterns can also be recognized in highly threated vertebrate species, such as the fact that the islands with the highest rate of endangered species are the biggest in size linked as well to a more significant number of human population (Spatz 2017). Moreover, differences in taxonomy characteristics, i.e. among amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, might lead to the necessity of diversity in conservation approaches and funding strategies (Spatz 2017).

There exist different strategies to approach the threat of invasive species, such as eradication and local control, fencing out invasive species, translocating threatened species to safe habitats, implementing education programs, and enhancing policy for addressing invasions (Spatz). For those islands with highly endangered species and where invasive ones have yet to arrive, the focus will have to shift to biosecurity to conserve the breeding status (Spatz 2017).

Finally, with the adoption of a Threatened Island Biodiversity Database  created by Spatz et al. it will be possible to assemble distribution information and create customized conservation assessments, evaluations and action plans (Spatz 2017).


References:

Spatz, D.R., K.M. Zilliacus, N.D. Holmes, S.H. Butchart, P. Genovesi, G. Ceballos, B.R. Tershy and D.A.Croll ‘Globally threatened vertebrates on islands with invasive species’, Science advances 3(10) 2017


ZSL Institute of Zoology ‘Island conservation: protecting global biodiversity’ (n.d.). 


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