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Jan
14
2009
Removing invasive species can trigger ecosystem meltdown
Macquarie Island managers had only the best intentions when they eradicated all of the island’s feral cats in order to preserve native bird populations. Call it their $24 million mistake. That’s how much it would cost to repair the resulting mess.
The study, appearing in the Journal of Applied Ecology, provides a rare, real-world glimpse of the domino effect that removing one species (even an invasive one) within a food web can trigger.
Since the last cat was shot in 2000, say the authors, rabbit populations—originally held in check by cats and an introduced virus—have increased more than tenfold. The consequence is that their exploding appetites have utterly destroyed the island’s vegetation. Using population data, satellite imagery and vegetation plots, the authors document this change and prove that the cat killings are what let the rabbits out of the bag. Their models show that this—and not other factors like climate—is the reason for the ecosystem “meltdown” in the middle of the Southern Ocean.
The moral of the study is that conservation planners should be thinking more holistically, rather than use the kind of step-by-step approach that limited funding often necessitates. After all, purging the rabbits was originally next up on the Macquarie Island agenda. —Jessica Leber
Source: Bergstrom, D.M. et. al. 2009. Indirect effects of invasive species removal devastate World Heritage Site. Journal of Applied Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01601.x
Image © Genesis Graphics / iStock.com
Filed Under Community-based conservation, Invasive species, Restoration |
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