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Chape, Stuart

Today: Pacific island people reliant on natural resources 70-80% of the catch from inshore fisheries is used for subsistence purposes

Pacific ecosystem-based adaptation to Climate Change (PEBACC) newsletter, Issue 7 (Aug-Oct 2017)

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Secretariat of the Regional Environment Programme

Welcome to another edition of the PEBACC newsletter. As we review the events of this quarter, we are pleased to showcase some of our stories from the field in our project countries

Costs and benefits of rodent eradication on Lord Howe Island Australia

Invasive species compete with endemic species and if successful can displace native species in the host region (Cororaton et al., 2009).

Bennett, Jeff

Gillespie, Robert

2017

The state of world fisheries and aquaculture 2018 - Meeting the sustainable development goals

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 presents FAOs official world fishery and aquaculture statistics. Global fish production* peaked at about 171 million tonnes in 2016, with aquaculture representing 47 percent of the total and 53 percent, if non-food uses (including reduction to fishmeal and fish oil) are excluded. With capture fishery production relatively static since the late 1980s, aquaculture has been responsible for the continuing impressive growth in the supply of fish for human consumption.

Republic of the Marshall Islands Fifth National Report Convention on Biological Diversity

Island and Ocean Ecosystems

This 5th National Report for the Republic of the Marshall Islands provides an update on the biodiversity status and trends, as well as progress towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 including the Aichi Biodiversity Target 2020. The report is divided into three main parts with part one focusing on the importance of biodiversity to the people, the state and threats to biodiversity and implication of changes to biodiversity; part two focuses on theactions and implementation of national biodiversity strategy and action plan; and part three focuses on alignment of national targets to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. This report is the end product of a consultative process undertaken through the development of the national blueprint for conservation areas plan and the 2016 State of Environment report for RMI.

Office of Environmental Planning Policy Coordination

2017

Guidelines for invasive species planning and management on islands

What are the guidelines for? Provide a comprehensive framework for invasive species management on islands.

Our Ocean, Our Pacific, Our Islands

SPREP Publications, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

This factsheet was published by SPREP to provide small facts on its work in the reagion to provide technical support and advise to its members on the on-going works towards saving our Pacific Oceans etc.

Global rise in emerging alien species results form increased accessibility of new source pools

Our ability to predict the identity of future invasive alien species is largely based upon knowledge of prior invasion history. Emerging alien speciesthose never encountered as aliens beforetherefore 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 20002005 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 116% 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.

Alain, Roques

Alexander, Mosena

Andrew M, Liebhold

Barbara, Tokarska-Guzik

Benoit, Guenard

Bernd, Blasius

Bernd, Lenzner

Cesar, Capinha

Charlotte, E Causton

Darren, F Ward

David, Pearman

Dietmar, Moser

Eckehard, G Brockerhoff

Ellie, E Dyer

Evan, PEconomo

Franz, Essl

Giuseppe, Brundu

Hanno, Seebens

Heinke, Jager

Helen E, Roy

Ingolf, Kuhn

Jan, Pergl

John, Kartesz

Jonathan, M Jeschke

Julissa, Rojas-Sandoval

Katerina, Stjerova

Kevin Walker

Laura, Celesti-Grapow

Marc, Kenis

Margarita, Arianoutsou

Mark, van Kleunen

Marten, Winter

Michael, Ansong

Misako, Nishino

Nicol, Fuentes

Petr, Pysek

Philip, E Hulme

Piero, Genovesi

Riccardo, Scalera

Shyama, Pagad

Silvia, Rossinelli

Stefan, Dullinger

Stefan, Schindler

Stephanie, Rorke

Sven, Bacher

Takehiko, Yamanaka

Tim M, Blackburn

Wayne, Dawson

Wolfgang, Nentwig

Wolfgang, Rabitsch

Introduced rats indirectly change marine rocky intertidal communities from algae- to invertebrate-dominated

It is widely recognized that trophic interactions structure ecological communities, but their effects are usually only demonstrated on a small scale. As a result, landscape-level documentations of trophic cascades that alter entire communities are scarce. Islands invaded by animals provide natural experiment opportunities both to measure general trophic effects across large spatial scales and to etermine the trophic roles of invasive species within native ecosystems. Studies addressing the trophic interactions of invasive species most often focus on their direct effects. To investigate both the presence of a landscape-level trophic cascade and the direct and indirect effects of an invasive species, we examined the impacts of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) introduced to the Aleutian Islands on marine bird densities and marine rocky intertidal community structures through surveys conducted on invaded and rat-free islands throughout the entire 1,900-km archipelago. Densities of birds that forage in the intertidal were higher on islands without rats. Marine intertidal invertebrates were more abundant on islands with rats, whereas fleshy algal cover was reduced. Our results demonstrate that invasive rats directly reduce bird densities through predation and significantly affect invertebrate and marine algal abundance in the rocky intertidal indirectly via a cross-community trophic cascade, unexpectedly changing the intertidal community structure from an algae- to an invertebrate-dominated system.

Croll, Donald A.

Kurle, Carolyn M.

Tershy, Bernie R.

2008

Ecological and socioeconomic impacts of invasive alien species in island ecosystems.