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Atoll islands are often perceived as inevitably lost due to rising sea levels. However, unlike other islands, atoll islands are dynamic landforms that have evolved, at least historically, to vertically accrete at a pace commensurate with changing sea levels. Rather than atoll islands’ low elevation per se, the impairment of natural accretion processes is jeopardising their persistence. While global marine impacts are deteriorating coral reefs, local impacts also significantly affect accretion, together potentially tipping the scales toward atoll island erosion. Maintaining atoll island accretion requires intact sediment generation on coral reefs, unobstructed sediment transport from reef to island, and available vegetated deposition sites on the island. Ensuring the persistence of atoll islands must include global greenhouse gas emission reduction and local restoration of accretion proce

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.

Many neglected tropical zoonotic pathogens are maintained by introduced mammals, and on islands the most common introduced species are rodents, cats, and dogs. Management of introduced mammals, including control or eradication of feral populations, which is frequently done for ecological restoration, could also reduce or eliminate the pathogens these animals carry. Understanding the burden of these zoonotic diseases is crucial for quantifying the potential public health benefits of introduced mammal management. However, epidemiological data are only available from a small subset of islands where these introduced mammals co-occur with people. We examined socioeconomic and climatic variables as predictors for disease burdens of angiostrongyliasis, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, toxocariasis, and rabies from 57 islands or island countries. We found strong correlates of disease burden for leptospirosis, Toxoplasma gondii infection, angiostrongyliasis, and toxocariasis with more than 50% of the variance explained, and an average of 57% (range = 32–95%) predictive accuracy on out-of-sample data. We used these relationships to provide estimates of leptospirosis incidence and T. gondii seroprevalence infection on islands where nonnative rodents and cats are present. These predicted estimates of disease burden could be used in an initial assessment of whether the costs of managing introduced mammal reservoirs might be less than the costs of perpetual treatment of these diseases on islands.

Global biodiversity loss is disproportionately rapid on islands, where invasive species are a major driver of extinctions. To inform conservation planning aimed at preventing extinctions, we identify the distribution and biogeographic patterns of highly threatened terrestrial vertebrates (classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature) and invasive vertebrates on ~465,000 islands worldwide by conducting a comprehensive literature review and interviews with more than 500 experts. We found that 1189 highly threatened vertebrate species (319 amphibians, 282 reptiles, 296 birds, and 292 mammals) breed on 1288 islands. These taxa represent only 5% of Earth's terrestrial vertebrates and 41% of all highly threatened terrestrial vertebrates, which occur in 1% of islands worldwide. Information about invasive vertebrates was available for 1030 islands (80% of islands with highly threatened vertebrates). Invasive vertebrates were absent from 24% of these islands, where biosecurity to prevent invasions is a critical management tool. On the 76% of islands where invasive vertebrates were present, management could benefit 39% of Earth’s highly threatened vertebrates. Invasive mammals occurred in 97% of these islands, with Rattus as the most common invasive vertebrate (78%; 609 islands). Our results provide an important baseline for identifying islands for invasive species eradication and other island conservation actions that reduce biodiversity loss.

This study aimed to determine an economic value of seven marine and coastal ecosystem services in Kiribati. It is part of the MACBIO (Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Management in Pacific Island Countries) project, which aims to improve the management of marine and coastal biodiversity in Pacific Island countries.

Solomon Islands is composed of almost 1000 islands and has the second longest coastline and the second largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EZZ) in the Pacific. These physical characteristics and the unique society and culture of the population are the basis of the fundamental relationship that Solomon Islanders have with the ocean and its ecosystem services. This analysis aims to assist decision-makers to recognise the role that marine ecosystems play in human wellbeing. Ecosystem services, described as the benefits that humans receive from ecosystems, are often not fully considered in decisions, because the market fails to reveal their true value. Failure to consider the role that marine ecosystems play in supporting livelihoods, economic activity and human wellbeing has, in many instances, led to inequitable and unsustainable marine resource management decisions.

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