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45992 result(s) found.

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Economic and environmental threats of alien plant, animal, and microbe invasions
BRB
Available Online

Aquino, T.

,

Janecka, J.

,

McNair, S.

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O'Connel, C.

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Pimentel, David.

,

Russel, L.

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Simmonds, C.

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Tsomondo, T.

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Wightman, J.

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Wong, E.

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Zern, J.

2000
Quantifying the environmental damage and loss of biodiversity due to alien species invasions worldwide is complicated by the fact that only some 1.5 million of the estimated 10 million species on earth have been identified and described. The total numbers of introduced species in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, India, and Brazil range about 2000 to 50,000 species
Prognosis for ecosystem recovery following rodent eradication and seabird restoration in an island archipelago.
BRB
Available Online

Holly P. JonES

2010
Invasive species are widespread and can have devastating effects on biota, especially insular biota. Invasive species eradications are increasingly employed to promote island recovery to preinvasion states. However, it remains unclear if additional restoration actions may be required on islands that were once heavily reliant on seabird guano for ecosystem functions. Active seabird augmentation has been suggested as necessary to exact ecosystem recovery on contemporary timescales in some cases. I use two experiments on offshore islands in Cook Strait, New Zealand, to test the hypothesis that seabird restoration will restore island ecosystem functioning following invasive rodent removal. The first is a small-scale single-island fertilization experiment that simulates seabird recovery.
Insects of Samoa and other Samoan terrestrial arthropoda. Part IV
BRB
Available Online

Aurivillius, Chr.

,

Blair, K.G.

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Fleutiaux, E.

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Jordan, Karl

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Kleine, R.

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Perkins, R.C.L.

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Van Zwaluwenberg, R.H.

1928
Although a monograph, or series of papers, dealing comprehensively with the land arthropod fauna of any group of islands in the South Pacific may be expected to yield valuable results, in connection with distribution, modification due to isolation, and other problems, no such work is at present in existence.
Global rise in emerging alien species results form increased accessibility of new source pools
Biodiversity Conservation, BRB
Available Online

Alain, Roques

,

Alexander, Mosena

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Andrew M, Liebhold

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Barbara, Tokarska-Guzik

,

Benoit, Guenard

,

Bernd, Blasius

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Bernd, Lenzner

,

Cesar, Capinha

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Charlotte, E Causton

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Darren, F Ward

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David, Pearman

,

Dietmar, Moser

,

Eckehard, G Brockerhoff

,

Ellie, E Dyer

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Evan, PEconomo

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Franz, Essl

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Giuseppe, Brundu

,

Hanno, Seebens

,

Heinke, Jager

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Helen E, Roy

,

Ingolf, Kuhn

,

Jan, Pergl

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John, Kartesz

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Jonathan, M Jeschke

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Julissa, Rojas-Sandoval

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Katerina, Stjerova

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Kevin Walker

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Laura, Celesti-Grapow

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Marc, Kenis

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Margarita, Arianoutsou

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Mark, van Kleunen

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Marten, Winter

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Michael, Ansong

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Misako, Nishino

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Nicol, Fuentes

,

Petr, Pysek

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Philip, E Hulme

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Piero, Genovesi

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Riccardo, Scalera

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Shyama, Pagad

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Silvia, Rossinelli

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Stefan, Dullinger

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Stefan, Schindler

,

Stephanie, Rorke

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Sven, Bacher

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Takehiko, Yamanaka

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Tim M, Blackburn

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Wayne, Dawson

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Wolfgang, Nentwig

,

Wolfgang, Rabitsch

Our ability to predict the identity of future invasive alien species is largely based upon knowledge of prior invasion history. Emerging alien species—those never encountered as aliens before—therefore pose a significant challenge to biosecurity interventions worldwide. Understanding their temporal trends, origins, and the drivers of their spread is pivotal to improving prevention and risk assessment tools. Here, we use a database of 45,984 first records of 16,019 established alien species to investigate the temporal dynamics of occurrences of emerging alien species worldwide. Even after many centuries of invasions the rate of emergence of new alien species is still high: One-quarter of first records during 2000–2005 were of species that had not been previously recorded anywhere as alien, though with large variation across taxa. Model results show that the high proportion of emerging alien species cannot be solely explained by increases in well-known drivers such as the amount of imported commodities from historically important source regions. Instead, these dynamics reflect the incorporation of new regions into the pool of potential alien species, likely as a consequence of expanding trade networks and environmental change. This process compensates for the depletion of the historically important source species pool through successive invasions. We estimate that 1–16% of all species on Earth, depending on the taxonomic group, qualify as potential alien species. These results suggest that there remains a high proportion of emerging alien species we have yet to encounter, with future impacts that are difficult to predict.
Zero-tolerance biosecurity protects high-conservation-value island nature reserve.
BRB
Available Online

Scott,John K. McKirdy, Simon J. van der Merwe, Johann Green, Roy Burbidge, Andrew A. Pickles, Greg Hardie,Darryl C. Morris, Keith Kendrick, Peter G. Thomas, Melissa L. Horton, Kristin L. O’Conner, Simon Downs, Justin Stoklosa, Richard Lagdon, Russell Marks, Barbara Naim, Malcolm Mengersen, Kerrie

2017
Barrow Island, north-west coast of Australia, is one of the world’s significant conservation areas, harboring marsupials that have become extinct or threatened on mainland Australia as well as a rich diversity of plants and animals, some endemic. Access to construct a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, Australia’s largest infrastructure development, on the island was conditional on no non-indigenous species (NIS) becoming established. We developed a comprehensive biosecurity system to protect the island’s biodiversity. From 2009 to 2015 more than 0.5 million passengers and 12.2 million tonnes of freight were transported to the island under the biosecurity system, requiring 1.5 million hrs of inspections. No establishments of NIS were detected. We made four observations that will assist development of biosecurity systems. Firstly, the frequency of detections of organisms corresponded best to a mixture log-normal distribution including the high number of zero inspections and extreme values involving rare incursions. Secondly, comprehensive knowledge of the island’s biota allowed estimation of false positive detections (62% native species). Thirdly, detections at the border did not predict incursions on the island. Fourthly, the workforce detected more than half post-border incursions (59%). Similar approaches can and should be implemented for all areas of significant conservation value.
No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide
BRB
Available Online

Hanno Seebens et al

Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of 45,813 first records of 16,926 established alien species, we show that the annual rate of first records worldwide has increased during the last 200 years, with 37% of all first records reported most recently (1970–2014). Inter-continental and inter-taxonomic variation can be largely attributed to the diaspora of European settlers in the nineteenth century and to the acceleration in trade in the twentieth century. For all taxonomic groups, the increase in numbers of alien species does not show any sign of saturation and most taxa even show increases in the rate of first records over time. This highlights that past efforts to mitigate invasions have not been effective enough to keep up with increasing globalization.
Report on results of rat control trials in the Tokelau Islands from 30 July to 20 September 1970 and recommendations for a comprehensive scheme of rat control
BRB
Available Online

Kazimierz Wodzicki

1970
The visit to the Tokelau Islands described below is the third carried out in a study of ecology, rat control and related problems. The first visit in 1966/67 (Wodzicki 1968 A) was devoted primarily to the study of the ecology of the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) and the environment, including the animals and the vegetation, of Nukunonu atoll. The main objects of the second expedition in April-June 1968 (Wodzicki 1968 B) were the initiation of a long-term investigation of rat damage on all three atolls and the training of two men from each island as rat control operatives. The present visit was planned with the following tow main objectives in mind: 1. the study of the relationship of rat damage to various coconut varieties growing in the Tokelau Islands; and 2. the conduct of rat control trials with the view of preparing for the Administrator, Tokelau Islands (Mr. Richard B. Taylor) recommendations for a rat control scheme suitable for the Tokelau Islands. The preliminary analysis of data collected during the fifteen months long investigation of rat damage in 1968/69 on the three atolls suggested that palms belonging to some varieties may be more prone to rat damage then others (Wodzicki 1970). It seemed important that we learn more about the character of palms growing on the three atolls. With regard to rat control, trials with various kinds of poisons have been carried out since our first visit to the Tokelaus in 1966/67 (Wodzicki 1968 A). However, during our first two visits knowledge of rat ecology was not sufficiently advanced to allow for more sophisticated tests. Since the author's 1968 visit, the important work on rat control in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands by F.J. Smith (Smith 1969) has become available. This information and our knowledge of rat ecology, gradually acquired since the beginning of the Tokelau Islands rat project, now makes possible a programme that could become the basis of a practical rat control scheme for the three islands. As most of the previous work had been carried out on Nukunonu atoll only, it was felt that half of the time during the visit should be spent on Fakaofo and th remainder on Atafu. Following a brief descrption of these trials is the writer's recommendation of a rat control scheme submitted to the Administrator, Tokelau Islands. Finally, some other observations on plants, animals and related aspects are friefly reported and collections made for the Botany Division, D.S.I.R. and the Dominion Museum are briefly mentioned.
Seabird colonies as important global drivers in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
BRB
Available Online

Ferreira, Tiago Osorio.

,

Huerta-Diaz, Miguel Angel.

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Otero, Xose Luis.

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Pena-Lastra, Saul De La.

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Perez-Alberti, Augusto.

2018
Seabirds drastically transform the environmental conditions of the sites where they establish their breeding colonies via soil, sediment, and water eutrophication (hereafter termed ornitheutrophication). Here, we report worldwide amounts of total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) excreted by seabirds using an inventory of global seabird populations applied to a bioenergetics model. We estimate these fluxes to be 591 Gg N y?1 and 99 Gg P y?1, respectively, with the Antarctic and Southern coasts receiving the highest N and P inputs. We show that these inputs are of similar magnitude to others considered in global N and P cycles, with concentrations per unit of surface area in seabird colonies among the highest measured on the Earth’s surface. Finally, an important fraction of the total excreted N (72.5 Gg y?1) and P (21.8 Gg y?1) can be readily solubilized, increasing their short-term bioavailability in continental and coastal waters located near the seabird colonies.
Estimating burdens of neglected tropical zoonotic diseases on islands with introduced mammals
BRB
Available Online

Croll, Donald A.

,

Holmes, Nick D.

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Kilpatrick, A. Marm.

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Newton, Kelly M.

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Spatz, Dena R.

,

Tershy, Bernie.

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de Wit, Luz A.

2017
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.
Massive yet grossly underestimated global costs of invasive insects
BRB
Available Online

Albert, Celine.

,

Barbet-Massin, Morgane.

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Bellard, Celine.

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Bradshaw, Corey J.A.

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Courchamp, Franck.

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Fournier, Alice.

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Leroy, Boris.

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Roiz, David.

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Salles, Jean-Michel.

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Simard, Frederic.

2016
Insects have presented human society with some of its greatest development challenges by spreading diseases, consuming crops and damaging infrastructure. Despite the massive human and financial toll of invasive insects, cost estimates of their impacts remain sporadic, spatially incomplete and of questionable quality. Here we compile a comprehensive database of economic costs of invasive insects. Taking all reported goods and service estimates, invasive insects cost a minimum of US$70.0 billion per year globally, while associated health costs exceed US$6.9 billion per year. Total costs rise as the number of estimate increases, although many of the worst costs have already been estimated (especially those related to human health). A lack of dedicated studies, especially for reproducible goods and service estimates, implies gross underestimation of global costs. Global warming as a consequence of climate change, rising human population densities and intensifying international trade will allow these costly insects to spread into new areas, but substantial savings could be achieved by increasing surveillance, containment and public awareness.

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