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The recovery of seabird populations on Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales, following the 1999/2000 rat eradication

Island and Ocean Ecosystems, BRB

Available Online

Bell, E.A.

Bell, M.D.

Morgan, G.

Morgan, L.

Ramsey Island, 259 ha, is ca. 1 km off the Pembrokeshire coast, south-west Wales. The eradication of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) was successfully completed in the winter 1999/2000 using a ground-based bait station operation. The pre-eradication survey using tape playback estimated the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) population to be 849 pairs. These surveys were repeated in 2007, 2012 and 2016. Each survey showed the Manx shearwater population had increased, reaching 4,796 pairs in 2016 with birds spreading from previously known breeding locations. European storm petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus) were ?rst recorded breeding on Ramsey Island in 2008 with up to 12 pairs in 2016 (a minimum estimate based on accessible survey areas). Other species have also shown improvements to population estimates and range since the rat eradication. This evidence shows that there can be little doubt that the presence of brown rats on Ramsey played a signi?cant role in suppressing breeding numbers and limiting the breeding range of seabirds on the island and the positive results following the successful eradication are now being seen.

A plan for the eradication of invasive alien species from Arctic islands

Available Online

Howald, G.

Reaser, J.

Veatch, S.

Invasive alien species represent one of the most significant threats to Arctic ecosystems and their inhabitants. Rapidly changing environmental conditions and a growing interest in resource extraction, settlement and tourism make the Arctic region particularly vulnerable to biological invasion. For this reason, invasive alien species are of substantial concern to the Arctic Council, a multi-national body comprised of Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States, as well as six international organisations that represent Arctic indigenous peoples as Permanent Participants. The Arctic Councils Arctic Invasive Alien Species (ARIAS) Strategy and Action Plan includes the priority to: actively facilitate the eradication of invasive alien species from island ecosystems throughout the Arctic, as well as the recovery of native island species and habitats that have been impacted by invasive alien species. A multi-national team of governmental and non-government partners is collaborating in the development of an action plan (hereafter islands plan) for the eradication of invasive alien species from Arctic island ecosystems. The intent of the plan is to provide a vision and strategy for a region-wide approach to the eradication of island invasive alien species as a multi-national commitment. The islands plan will set forth a strategy for prioritising island eradications consistent with the growing pressures on ecological and cultural systems. We have a unique opportunity in the Arctic to take decisive action to prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts of invasive alien species that plague much of the rest of the world. The eradication of invasive alien species from islands in other parts of the world provides useful insights into best practices, including approaches to prioritisation and cost-effectiveness.

Strategic environmental assessment for invasive species management on inhabited islands.

Available Online

Russel, J.

Taylor, C.

Over the past decade the challenges of managing invasive species on inhabited islands have clearly become limiting factors to scaling-up the area of invasive species eradications. Step-change is required to unleash the conservation and restoration potential of biodiversity on inhabited islands around the globe and avoid the pitfalls previous attempts to eradicate invasive species on inhabited islands have fallen into. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a systematic decision support process, aiming to ensure that environmental and other sustainability aspects are considered effectively throughout policy, plan and programme making. Within the framework of SEAs, on target islands eradication planners could implement a number of tools including stakeholder engagement, social impact assessment and economic cost benefit analysis alongside existing environmental impact assessment. Such a suite of assessments captures the immediate impacts of an eradication operation on a range of values, alongside predicted long-term changes in these tightly coupled socio-ecological systems. In this paper we outline what SEA is, and then contrast invasive species management attempts occurring outside an SEA framework on two similar but also contrasting UNESCO World Heritage islands; Lord Howe Island, Australia and Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. We then demonstrate how an SEA approach to invasive species management would assist planning in New Zealand to eradicate introduced mammalian predators from two large off shore islands in New Zealand; Aotea (Great Barrier Island) and Rakiura (Stewart Island). We conclude with future prospects for applying SEA to invasive species management on inhabited islands.

Invasive species removals and scale contrasting island and mainland experience

Available Online

Adriaens, T.

Booy, O.

Mill, A.

Robertson, P.

Roy, S.

Shirley, M.

Tatayah, V.

Ward, A.

Recent years have seen large increases in the number and size of successful invasive species eradications from islands. There is also a long history of large scale removals on larger land-masses. These programmes for mammals and terrestrial plants follow the same cost-area relationship although spanning 10 orders of magnitude in scale. Eradication can be readily defined in island situations but can be more complex on larger land-masses where uncertainties defining the extent of a population, multiple population centres on the same land-mass and ongoing risks of immigration are commonplace. The term complete removal is proposed to describe removal from an area with ongoing eff ort to maintain the area as clear, as features in many larger scale mainland programmes. Examples of complete removal to a boundary, in patches and in habitat islands are discussed. While island eradications continue to grow in scale, new legislation such as the lists of Species of European Union Concern will also drive increasing management on larger land-masses. However, these lists include large numbers of species that are already widespread. Methods are needed to prioritise species to reflect both the risks posed and the feasibility of management, including the effects of scale on cost and effectiveness.

Working with the local community to eradicate rats on an inhabited island: securing the seabird heritage of the Isles of Scilly

Available Online

Bell, E.

Buckley, P.

Garratt, W.

Lock, L.

Mason, S.

McCarthy, R.

Pearce, J.

Pearson, J.

Pierre, P.

Sugar, K.

The inhabited Isles of Scilly, 45 km off the south-western tip of the UK, are home to 13 seabird species including European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), for which the UK has a global responsibility. Between 1983 and 2006, the overall seabird population in Scilly declined by c.25%. This decline triggered the establishment of the Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project, a partnership with the aims to reverse seabird decline and engage the local community and visitors in conserving Scillys seabird heritage. The eradication of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) from St Agnes and Gugh represented the result of over a decade of preparatory work, involving raising awareness and gaining 100% support from the community. The two islands are home to 85 people. Therefore additional, and somewhat unusual, preparations were required (including clearing sheds, communicating with school children and taking precautions to ensure the safety of pets) during the ground-based baiting operation. In 2016 St Agnes and Gugh were officially declared rat-free, meaning worldwide this is one of the largest community-based eradications to have been successful. Biosecurity on inhabited islands is complex, so to ensure the projects sustainability, eff orts have been community-led. The community has taken ownership of protecting its seabirds, with 100% saying rat removal and the subsequent increase in seabirds has had, or will have, a positive effect on ecotourism, a key source of income for the islands. No less than 68% of the community said their businesses have directly benefited. This project represents a case study for other community-based projects, showcasing how eradications can gain community support and benefit both wildlife and human populations.

Maximising conservation impact by prioritising islands for biosecurity

Available Online

Bambini, L.

Dawson, J.

Havery, S.

John, L.

Oppel, S.

Radford, E.

Varnham, K.

Invasive alien species are one of the primary threats to native biodiversity on islands worldwide, and their expansion continues due to global trade and travel. Preventing the arrival and establishment of highly successful invasive species through rigorous biosecurity is known to be more economic than the removal of these species once they have established. However, many islands around the world lack biosecurity regulations or practical measures and establishing biosecurity will require social and financial investments. Guiding these investments towards islands where native biodiversity is at highest risk from potential invasions is of strategic importance to maximise conservation benefit with limited resources. Here we implement an established prioritisation approach, previously used to identify which islands will have the greatest conservation gains from the eradication of invasive species, to identify which islands would benefit the most from establishing or improving biosecurity. We demonstrate this approach for 318 islands in the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories and Bermuda where we considered all threatened native terrestrial vertebrates that are vulnerable to the most harmful invasive vertebrates (black and brown rats, cats, small Indian mongoose, green iguana). The approach calculates the increase in conservation threat score resulting from anticipated negative effects of potential invaders on native biodiversity, and highlighted Sombrero (Anguilla) and Cayman Brac (Cayman Islands) as important islands where threatened reptile species would likely be eliminated if rats, feral cats or mongoose invaded. Feasibility and cost implications should now be investigated more closely on the highlighted islands. The prioritisation presented here can be expanded to more islands and more invasive/native taxa (herbivores, plants and invertebrates), but requires a classification of the severity of potential impacts between invasive and native species for which currently little information exists. Besides highlighting opportunities for biosecurity, this approach also highlights where knowledge gaps about population sizes of and threats to reptiles with restricted ranges exist.

A little goes a long way when controlling invasive plants for biodiversity conservation

Available Online

Dudley, T.

Knapp, D.

Knapp, J.

Stahlheber, K.

Invasive species, particularly animals, are being eradicated from islands at ever more ambitious scales. In order to protect island biodiversity and the essential ecosystem functions that it provides, however, plant invasions should be given more management attention. While many advances have been made, plant eradication is inherently more difficult than animal eradication due to persistent seed banks, and eradication may not be possible for more extensive populations. While maintenance control has been successful, critics question the sustainability and priority of these efforts, and targets vary widely. Developing consistent and informed targets requires an understanding of how biodiversity varies with invader cover, yet little is known about this topic. Our research suggests that limited control efforts may be highly beneficial. We conducted a meta-analysis of 54 studies to investigate the effects of plant invasions on invertebrate diversity, incorporating invader cover and residence time as potential causal mechanisms. We also contrasted restored plots with otherwise native plots. We found that invertebrate species richness was 31% lower in exotic plots than in native plots, and that there is a threshold at around 70% invader cover after which the negative effects are significant across all studies. Furthermore, these negative effects tended to decrease with time, and invertebrate richness was even greater in restored plots. The implication is that by removing 30% or less of invasive plant cover and restoring natives, we can achieve many of our conservation goals. We argue that by maintaining invasive patches at or below 70% exotic cover at a site in the near term, we can buy time for both the islands insect herbivores to adapt to use the invader, and for managers to continue improving plant eradication technologies. By retaining native diversity in this way, we can help to increase the resistance and resilience of these systems to global change and other stressors.

Achieving large scale, long-term invasive American mink control in northern Scotland despite short term funding

Available Online

Horrill, J.

Lambin, X.

Raynor, R.

The American mink (Neovison vison) has invaded most of the United Kingdom following escapes from furfarms over decades. Its escalating impact on riparian and coastal biodiversity, including seabirds and water voles, is well documented. Starting in north-east Scotland in 2004, long-term, multi-institution mink control efforts have harnessed the enthusiasm of volunteer conservationists to push back the mink invasion over a vast area. Rather than the outcome of a single project with secured long-term funding, this achievement resulted from four successive joined up projects each with short-term funding. The beginnings of the project (20042006), under the auspices of the north-east Scotland Biodiversity Partnership were small scale (30 km2) and centred upon a lowland remnant water vole meta-population. Mink control efforts were scaled-up to 6,000 km2 of mostly marginal mink habitat as part of the Cairngorms Water Vole Conservation Project (20062009) centred on the newly established Cairngorms National Park. The project, led by the University of Aberdeen, was funded by a charity, a UK Research council and Scottish Natural Heritage and involved the national park authority, and three local fisheries trusts. The approach was to deploy a rolling carpet of mink control based on the use of mink rafts operated by volunteers and that facilitated mink detection and removal. Substantial funding was then secured for a successor project, the Scottish Mink Initiative (20102014) involving, all previous partners plus 14 local fisheries trusts coordinated by the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland. Mink were pushed back over a vast area (29,000 km2) and their spread in coastal areas of north-west Scotland was countered. After a period with minimal bridge funding, coordinated mink control efforts resumed, thanks to the newly funded Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (20172021) seeking to extend the approach used with mink to other riparian invasives. Mink remain scarce or absent and water voles are recovering spectacularly. Coordinated mink control delivered tangible conservation benefits and improved understanding of the socio-ecological system despite the challenges of short-term funding.

Going to scale: reviewing where weve been and where we need to go in invasive vertebrate eradications

Available Online

Hagen, E.

Holmes, N.

Howald, G.

Keitt, B.

Poiani, K.

We are on the edge of the sixth mass extinction on Earth. Islands represent ca. 5% of the earths land area yet are home to 61% of extinctions in the past 500 years, and currently support 39% of critically endangered species. Invasive species are a leading cause of extinction and endangerment on islands. Invasive vertebrates, particularly mammals, are among some of the most damaging invasive species on islands. Eradicating invasive mammals is an increasingly utilised conservation tool. Nevertheless, conservation intervention needs greatly outstrip the island restoration communitys capacity. There are thousands of islands where invasive vertebrates are driving species toward extinction. So, how can the effort be matched to the scale of the problem? One approach is to improve outreach and communications to increase the resources available for projects. There are great stories; but these need to be told compellingly and repeatedly. Increasing social acceptance and support for invasive species eradications will reduce project costs associated with stakeholder engagement. Broadening the funding base can be accomplished by building stronger cost benefit valuations as well as engaging funders of climate change, marine conservation, human wellbeing, and food security. Furthermore, it is important to build upon existing partnerships to create or grow coalitions that can access these resources as part of broader, holistic efforts to address multiple conservation issues.

No detection of brodifacoum residues in the marine and terrestrial food web three years after rat eradication at Palmyra Atoll, Central Pacific

Available Online

Holmes, N.

Howald, G.

Shiels, A.

Wegmann, A.

Invasive alien species represent one of the greatest threats to native plants and animals on islands. Rats (Rattus spp.) have invaded most of the worlds oceanic islands, causing lasting or irreversible damage to ecosystems and biodiversity. To counter this threat, techniques to eradicate invasive rats from islands have been developed and applied across the globe. Eradication of alien rats from large or complex island ecosystems has only been successful with the use of bait containing a rodenticide. While effective at eradicating rats from islands, rodenticide can persist in the ecosystem longer than the time required to eradicate the target rat population and can potentially harm non-target species. However, the persistence of rodenticides in ecosystems following rat eradication campaigns is poorly understood, though predictions can be made based on the chemical properties of the rodenticide and the environment it is applied in. Brodifacoum, a relatively persistent second-generation anticoagulant, was used to successfully eradicate rats from Palmyra Atoll. With this study, we evaluated the persistence of brodifacoum residues in terrestrial and marine species at Palmyra Atoll (Northern Line Islands) three years after rat eradication. We collected 44 pooled samples containing 121 individuals of the following: mullet (Moolgarda engeli), cockroaches (Periplaneta sp.), geckos (Lepidodactylus lugubris), hermit crabs (Coenobita perlatus), and fiddler crabs (Uca tetragonon). Despite detection of brodifacoum residue in all five of the species sampled in this study 60 days after the application of bait to Palmyra Atoll in 2011, brodifacoum residue was not found in any of the pooled samples collected three years after bait application. Our study demonstrates how brodifacoum residues are unlikely to persist in the marine and terrestrial food web, in a wet tropical environment, three years after rat eradication.

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