[PCA] Plant communities roar back after rat removal from Pacific islands

[De Angelis, Patricia]

 by Mongabay.com
19 July 2018

   - In a multi-year study, scientists found that tree seedlings were more
   than 5,000 percent more abundant after rats were eradicated from Palmyra
   Atoll, a group of 25 small islands in the Pacific Ocean.
   - Invasive rats, brought by ships over the past few centuries, eat tree
   seedlings and vegetation, in addition to driving down seabird numbers.
   - Managers eradicated the islands’ rats in 2011, and within a month,
   seedling densities had increased.

Plant numbers have surged in a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean
following the eradication of invasive rats that gobbled up seeds and gnawed
away at vegetation, a new study has found.

The full article
<https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/plant-communities-roar-back-after-rat-removal-from-pacific-islands/?n3wsletter&utm_source=Mongabay+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d86bdb0246-newsletter_2018_07_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_940652e1f4-d86bdb0246-67241263>
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