[APWG] ARTICLE: Eradicating black rats on Palmyra Atoll uncovers eye-opening indirect effects

[Park, Margaret E]

Ana Miller©\ter Kuile et al, Impacts of rodent eradication on seed predation and plant community biomass on a tropical atoll, Biotropica (2020)

The black rats weren't supposed to be there, on Palmyra Atoll. Likely arriving at the remote Pacific islet network as stowaways with the U.S. Navy during World War II, the rodents, with no natural predators, simply took over. Omnivorous eating machines, they dined on seabird eggs, native crabs and whatever seed and seedling they could find.

Eradication of the rats¡ªwhich was conducted in 2011¡ªdid in fact result in a resurgence of vegetation on Palmyra...The coconut palm invasion is a problem for places like Palmyra Atoll, as it shifts the island's ecology away from native plants and animals..."Wildlife management, in particular, has a history of being single-species focused, which often means that a lot of time and energy is put into producing or controlling a species without considering the broader effects of that management effort on all of the rest of the species in that ecosystem"...Anticipating the indirect downstream effects, such as potential shifts in ecology toward other invasive species, could become part of a more holistic island rodent eradication effort.

Link to article: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-eradicating-black-rats-palmyra-atoll.html



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