TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecosystem changes following the eradication of invasive species
T2 - Evaluation of various eradication scenarios by computer simulation
AU - Yoshida, Katsuhiko
AU - Hata, Kenji
AU - Kawakami, Kazuto
AU - Hiradate, Syuntaro
AU - Osawa, Takeshi
AU - Kachi, Naoki
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grant-in-aid for scientific research A (No. 24710038, 25241025, 16H01794) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. We thank Yukiko Aoyama, Kyoko Sugai, Mari Kohri, Kiyoshi Satake for comments regarding features of ecosystems on the Ogasawara Islands, Hiroyuki Yokomizo for comments on the manuscript, Kenji Takamura, Noriko Takamura, Hiroya Yamano and other members of Center for Environmental Biology and Ecosystem Studies, National Institute for Environmental studies for supporting this study.
Funding Information:
This study was supported by grant-in-aid for scientific research A (No. 24710038 , 25241025 , 16H01794 ) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science . We thank Yukiko Aoyama, Kyoko Sugai, Mari Kohri, Kiyoshi Satake for comments regarding features of ecosystems on the Ogasawara Islands, Hiroyuki Yokomizo for comments on the manuscript, Kenji Takamura, Noriko Takamura, Hiroya Yamano and other members of Center for Environmental Biology and Ecosystem Studies, National Institute for Environmental studies for supporting this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - The decline of the natural ecosystem on the Ogasawara Islands caused by invasive species has been an important environmental problem and projects for eradicating invasive species are currently underway. Some invasive species have proliferated in the host environment and are affecting the material cycle in the ecosystem. If the invasive species were removed from the environment, the material cycle of the ecosystem may be altered and native species that should be protected may be negatively affected. After the introduction of invasive alien species, namely goats and rats, the vegetation declined on Nakoudojima Island, an island that belongs to the Ogasawara Islands. Therefore, in this study, a mathematical model was developed to simulate and analyze the ecosystem changes that occurred following the eradication of goats and rats. When only rats were eradicated, the island's vegetation changed to grassland but revegetation was delayed and the biomass of the native animal species did not recover significantly. When only goats were eradicated, the vegetation recovered and the biomass of the native animal species increased; however, the island became forested and many native herbaceous plant species became extinct. When goats and rats were eradicated simultaneously, the vegetation recovered and the biomass of the native animal species increased; however, the ecosystem became very unstable and two extreme results were obtained – the vegetation of the entire island changed to either forest or grassland. The results of this study suggest that instead of simply eradicating invasive species, it is necessary to monitor post-eradication changes in the ecosystem and take adaptive measures as required.
AB - The decline of the natural ecosystem on the Ogasawara Islands caused by invasive species has been an important environmental problem and projects for eradicating invasive species are currently underway. Some invasive species have proliferated in the host environment and are affecting the material cycle in the ecosystem. If the invasive species were removed from the environment, the material cycle of the ecosystem may be altered and native species that should be protected may be negatively affected. After the introduction of invasive alien species, namely goats and rats, the vegetation declined on Nakoudojima Island, an island that belongs to the Ogasawara Islands. Therefore, in this study, a mathematical model was developed to simulate and analyze the ecosystem changes that occurred following the eradication of goats and rats. When only rats were eradicated, the island's vegetation changed to grassland but revegetation was delayed and the biomass of the native animal species did not recover significantly. When only goats were eradicated, the vegetation recovered and the biomass of the native animal species increased; however, the island became forested and many native herbaceous plant species became extinct. When goats and rats were eradicated simultaneously, the vegetation recovered and the biomass of the native animal species increased; however, the ecosystem became very unstable and two extreme results were obtained – the vegetation of the entire island changed to either forest or grassland. The results of this study suggest that instead of simply eradicating invasive species, it is necessary to monitor post-eradication changes in the ecosystem and take adaptive measures as required.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108831
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108831
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073018479
VL - 413
JO - Ecological Modelling
JF - Ecological Modelling
SN - 0304-3800
M1 - 108831
ER -