Search the SPREP Catalogue

Advanced Search
Refine Search Results

Tags / Keywords

Available Online

Tags / Keywords

Available Online

1203 result(s) found.

Sort by

You searched for

  • Collection BRB
    X
  • Collection Anamua: Treasures of the Pacific Environment
    X
clear
Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico Island Conservation - preventing extinctions
BRB
Available Online
Desecheo Island supports important populations of plants, as well as animals found nowhere else in the world such as the Desecheo Anole, Desecheo Ameiva, and Desecheo Dwarf Gecko. Before the introduction of invasive rats, the island hosted large colonies of breeding seabirds, including the world’s largest Brown Booby colony and an important Red-footed Booby colony. But, due to the destruction of native vegetation and predation on eggs and chicks by these invasive rats, seabirds no longer nest on Desecheo and many plants and animals are threatened. Island Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working together to remove invasive rats from Desecheo Island. With the island free of invasive species, native plants and animals will once again be able to thrive in their natural habitat. Coral reefs in the Marine Reserve surrounding Desecheo (managed by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources) are also expected to benefit from the island’s restoration; increased vegetation will reduce soil erosion into the sea, and the seabirds will provide valuable nutrients to the adjacent marine ecosystems.
Evaluating Ecosystem-Based Adaptation For Disaster Risk Reduction In Fiji
BRB
Available Online

Pike Brown ? Adam Daigneault ? David Gawith ? William Aalbersberg ? James Comley ? Patrick Fong ? Fraser Morgan

Natural disasters such as hurricanes, cyclones, and tropical depressions cause average annual direct losses of US$284 million in the Pacific. With a combined population of fewer than 10 million people, annual losses are the highest in the world on a per-capita basis. Extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall are closely linked to climate change, suggesting that Pacific Island nations face increasing risk of disasters such as flooding and landslides. Proactive management through infrastructure development, social solutions, and/or ecosystem-based adaptation can mitigate these risks. However, there are a paucity of data pertaining to the costs, effectiveness, and feasibility of most management options. In the wake of two major flood events and a cyclone occurring between January and December 2012, we conducted a state-of-the-science assessment of disaster risk reduction for flooding in the Ba and Penang River catchments in Viti Levu, Fiji to identify the most cost-effective management options for communities and households (Figure E1). The analysis accounted for the biophysical and socioeconomic impacts of flooding, the costs, benefits, and feasibility of management, and the potential impacts of climate change.
Ecological and socioeconomic impacts of invasive alien species in island ecosystems.
Biodiversity Conservation, BRB
Available Online

Jamie K Reaser ? Laura A Meyerson ? Quentin Cronk ? Maj De Poorter

Minimizing the impact of invasive alien species (IAS) on islands and elsewhere requires researchers to provide cogent information on the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of IAS to the public and policy makers. Unfortunately, this information has not been readily available owing to a paucity of scientific research and the failure of the scientific community to make their findings readily available to decision makers. This review explores the vulnerability of islands to biological invasion, reports on environmental and socioeconomic impacts of IAS on islands and provides guidance and information on technical resources that can help minimize the effects of IAS in island ecosystems. This assessment is intended to provide a holistic perspective on island-IAS dynamics, enable biologists and social scientists to identify information gaps that warrant further research and serve as a primer for policy makers seeking to minimize the impact of IAS on island systems. Case studies have been selected to reflect the most scientifically-reliable information on the impacts of IAS on islands. Sufficient evidence has emerged to conclude that IAS are the most significant drivers of population declines and species extinctions in island ecosystems worldwide. Clearly, IAS can also have significant socioeconomic impacts directly (for example human health) and indirectly through their effects on ecosystem goods and services. These impacts are manifest at all ecological levels and affect the poorest, as well as richest, island nations. The measures needed to prevent and minimize the impacts of IAS on island ecosystems are generally known. However, many island nations and territories lack the scientific and technical information, infrastructure and human and financial resources necessary to adequately address the problems caused by IAS. Because every nation is an exporter and importer of goods and services, every nation is also a facilitator and victim of the invasion of alien species. Wealthy nations therefore need to help raise the capacity of island nations and territories to minimize the spread and impact of IAS.
Background Paper Number 2: The Potential for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in the Pacific Islands.
BRB
Available Online
This report examines the role of the ecosystem services in reducing the vulnerability of the people of the Pacific Islands to climate change. Specifically, it describes the decision-making frameworks and the current state of knowledge of specific ecosystem-service/development relationships that are relevant to EbA. The primary objective of this work will inform broader recommendations on improving the integration of ecosystems, biodiversity and climate change adaptation under the Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Climate Change in the Pacific - Analysis and Needs Assessment Project(The Project) which is part of a collaboration between the Secretariat for the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Conservation International and was undertaken from January to July 2011. This report should be considered as a companion volume to the other 3 background reports produced under the Project: Climate Change Adaptation Options for Species and Ecosystems in the Pacific: Background Paper #1; Need Analysis for Information on Ecosystem, Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific Islands Countries and Territories; Background Paper #3; Report on the Results Workshop from Nadi, 12-13 May 2011; Background Paper #4. The findings of each of these reports will be synthesized into a single, shorter volume that targets decision-makers in planning, agriculture, environment, fisheries and disaster management institutions in the Pacific. However, the audience for this EbA report (Background Paper #2) is technical staff in these institutions as it explores the next level of detail on EbA potential and practicalities of implementation.
Direct and indirect effects of rats: does rat eradication restore ecosystem functioning of New Zealand seabird islands?
BRB
Available Online

Christa P H Mulder ? M Nicole Grant-Hoffman ? David R Towns ? Peter J Bellingham ? David A Wardle ? Melody S Durrett ? Tadashi Fukami ? Karen I Bonner

Introduced rats (Rattus spp.) can affect island vegetation structure and ecosystem functioning, both directly and indirectly (through the reduction of seabird populations). The extent to which structure and function of islands where rats have been eradicated will converge on uninvaded islands remains unclear. We compared three groups of islands in New Zealand: islands never invaded by rats, islands with rats, and islands on which rats have been controlled. Differences between island groups in soil and leaf chemistry and leaf production were largely explained by burrow densities. Community structure of woody seedlings differed by rat history and burrow density. Plots on islands with high seabird densities had themost non-native plant species. Sincemost impacts of rats were mediated through seabird density, the removal of rats without seabird recolonization is unlikely to result in a reversal of these processes. Even if seabirds return, a novel plant community may emerge.
Beyond Kapiti - A decade of invasive rodent eradications from New Zealand islands.
BRB
Available Online

Keith Broome

New Zealand, an archipelago of more than 2000 islands, has a terrestrial fauna especially depauperate in native land mammals. Kiore (Rattus exulans) was the first of four rodent species introduced by people. A project to eradicate invasive rats from Kapiti Island in 1996, represented a turning point in the technology, complexity and scale at which managers of natural heritage on New Zealand islands could operate. This paper includes case studies of some significant projects targeting rodents, sometimes with other introduced mammals, undertaken in the 12 years following Kapiti. Details of the methods, costs, results and outcomes are provided for Kapiti, Whenua Hou, Tuhua, Campbell, Raoul, Hauturu, Taukihepa, and Pomona islands, collectively representing a total of over 23,000 ha of habitat cleared of introduced mammals. Research and trials undertaken in the Kapiti project provided the basis for future environmental risk assessments, allowing other projects to focus on knowledge gaps. New trends in invasive species eradication in New Zealand include more challenging multi-species eradication projects, some of which are undertaken by self- funded community groups. To summarise the lessons of the New Zealand experience: a programmatic approach is recommended which will fit each eradication within a context or framework of goals for those islands; address biosecurity issues at the outset; build capability to attempt the most challenging and rewarding projects; facilitate investment in monitoring and manage expectations of stakeholders to ensure their ongoing support. Success breeds success but is never guaranteed.
New Zealand island restoration: seabirds, predators, and the importance of history
BRB
Available Online

Peter J Bellingham ? David R Towns ? Ewen K Cameron ? Joe J Davis ? David A Wardle ? Janet M Wilmshurst ? Christa P H Mulder

New Zealand’s offshore and outlying islands have long been a focus of conservation biology as sites of local endemism and as last refuges for many species. During the c. 730 years since New Zealand has been settled by people, mammalian predators have invaded many islands and caused local and global extinctions. New Zealand has led international efforts in island restoration. By the late 1980s, translocations of threatened birds to predator-free islands were well under way to safeguard against extinction. Non-native herbivores and predators, such as goats and cats, had been eradicated from some islands. A significant development in island restoration in the mid-1980s was the eradication of rats from small forested islands. This eradication technology has been refined and currently at least 65 islands, including large and remote Campbell (11 216 ha) and Raoul (2938 ha) Islands, have been successfully cleared of rats. Many of New Zealand’s offshore islands, especially those without predatory mammals, are home to large numbers of breeding seabirds. Seabirds influence ecosystem processes on islands by enhancing soil fertility and through soil disturbance by burrowing. Predators, especially rats, alter ecosystem processes and cause population reductions or extinctions of native animals and plants. Islands have been promoted as touchstones of a primaeval New Zealand, but we are now increasingly aware that most islands have been substantially modified since human settlement of New Zealand. Archaeological and palaeoecological investigations, together with the acknowledgement that many islands have been important mahinga kai (sources of food) for M?ori, have all led to a better understanding of how people have modified these islands. Restoration technology may have vaulted ahead of our ability to predict the ecosystem consequences of its application on islands. However, research is now being directed to help make better decisions about restoration and management of islands, decisions that take account of island history and key drivers of island ecosystem functioning.
Will Alien Plant Invaders Be advantaged Under Future Climates?
Climate Change Resilience, Biodiversity Conservation, BRB
Available Online

Gallagher, Rachel V.

,

Leishman, Michelle R.

The last two decades have seen an upsurge in research into the potential synergies between invasive species and climate change, with evidence emerging of increased invader success under climate change. All stages along the naturalization-invasion continuum are likely to be affected, from the introduction and establishment of alien species to their spread and transition to serious invaders. A key question is whether alien plants will have a relative advantage under climate change conditions. So far, evidence for differential responses of alien invasive and native species to climate change drivers (elevated CO2) and outcomes (increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns, changes in disturbance regimes) is mixed. Although alien invasive plants appear to be more responsive to elevated CO2 than many native species, plant response to elevated CO2 and other climate change components is dependent on environmental conditions and resource availability. Similarly, correlative modelling of species-climate relationships has not revealed clear evidence that invasive plants are likely to be able to increase the extent of suitable habitat under future climates any more than their native counterparts. We suggest that the most important driver of a shift to alien-dominated vegetation under climate change will be the superior capacity of alien invasive plants to take advantage of colonisation opportunities arising from climate change, such as extreme climatic events, changes in disturbance regimes, and widespread reduction in vegetation resilience as range margin populations decline. There are substantial challenges ahead for managing invasive plants under future climates. Weed risk assessment and management approaches must incorporate consideration of future climatic conditions. Most importantly, we will need a shift in management approaches away from a focus on the control of undesirable alien plant species to building resilience of resident vegetation assemblages, in association with targeted monitoring and early eradication of alien plant species.
Pig Trap - Model CEN NC - Rope snare, light, simple, inexpensive - effective everywhere day and night
BRB
Available Online

Conservatoire d'espaces Naturels (CEN)

Setting up pig traps.
5 worst unwanted ants in the Pacific
BRB
Available Online
Invasive ants.

www.sprep.org © 2021 - 2026. All rights reserved

Login