{"id":3025,"date":"2023-01-29T21:22:17","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T21:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbgecologicalrestoration.wordpress.com\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2023-01-29T21:22:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T21:22:17","slug":"critical-ecological-care-in-the-land-of-the-dodo-invasive-species-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/critical-ecological-care-in-the-land-of-the-dodo-invasive-species-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical (ecological) care in the land of the dodo: invasive species removal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Eva Colberg, postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. Nearly all of Mauritius\u2019s contemporary conservation plights are rooted in or exacerbated by the effects of invasive, non-native species. To see what restoration can do for the island\u2019s few remaining forests, Dr. Eva Colberg joined members of the <\/em>Tropical Island Biodiversity, Ecology & Conservation<\/em><\/a> research group to visit (and weed) one of the island\u2019s forest restoration sites.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two of Mauritius\u2019s prominent ecological invaders, a macaque and strawberry guava. Photo: Eva Colberg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Red stems of strawberry guava (Psidium cattleyanum<\/a><\/em>) form a wall dense enough to prevent walking through most of Mauritius\u2019s remaining forests. Beyond impeding movement, the thick guava understory also reduces overstory tree fitness and disrupts native forest growth and succession. Originally from South America, strawberry guava is a classic case of a non-native, invasive species outcompeting and reducing habitat quality outside its native range (and islands are particularly vulnerable to invasion<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Litter basket ferns (Asplenium nidus<\/a><\/em>) and other native species grow in the understory space freed up in a 20-ha area since the UNDP-funded removal of strawberry guava and other invasives in 1996. Photo: Eva Colberg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Strawberry guava is far from the only invader threatening Mauritius\u2019s flora and fauna. Alien ants disrupt pollination of native plants, an effect compounded by invasive plant presence<\/a>. Conflicts between fruit farmers and a keystone seed disperser, the Mauritian flying fox (Pteropus niger<\/em>), could be due to poor habitat quality and low native fruit production in invaded forests<\/a>. Invasive macaques (Macaca fascicularis<\/em>) further disrupt plant reproduction by breaking branches and eating fruits before they\u2019re ripe<\/a>, and eating and stealing nectar from native flowers without pollination.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vincent Florens and an undergraduate student discuss the diversity of epiphytes found in a weeded section of forest at Black River Gorges National Park. Photo: Eva Colberg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing onslaught of invasion means there\u2019s no time to waste for restoration ecologists like F.B. Vincent Florens<\/a>, Associate Professor at the University of Mauritius. \u201cWe have so many rare species on the brink of extinction [over 80% of the island\u2019s endemic flowering plants are threatened<\/a>], and have to work at the same time and learn as we go.\u201d His life experience and ecological studies point to invasive species management as the island\u2019s best hope for restoration and conservation, which he likens to healthcare. \u201cFirst you save the person from dying and then you can treat the other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although the views from Black River Gorges National Park are stunning, they also show the sparseness of the park\u2019s forest overstory, with fewer and farther-between survivors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although avian re-introductions<\/a> and rewilding small islets with tortoises<\/a> are sexier solutions than mere weeding, the best way to keep Mauritius\u2019s mainland forests from dying is through invasive plant removal. After weeding, native trees in all forest strata produce more flowers and fruit<\/a>, woody plants increase in species richness and seedling density<\/a>, and butterfly diversity and abundance also increase<\/a>. These many benefits can be furthered and maintained by follow-up weeding and other subsequent measures (including the promise of biochar to suppress weed regeneration<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recently described and known to only a few locations, the orchid (Polystachya jubaultii<\/a><\/em>) grows in a weeded forest remnant at Black River Gorges National Park. Photo: Eva Colberg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite decades’ worth of evidence pointing to the efficacy of invasive plant removal in Mauritius, it still isn\u2019t widely implemented. Less than 5% of the island\u2019s few remaining forests have been weeded of invasive plants, and even the best-protected forests are already dominated by invasive undergrowth<\/a>. Frustratingly, some of the resources that could be used for invasive removal have instead hindered restoration via removal of native pioneer and nurse tree species. \u201cWe can do a lot of science, can come up with a lot of facts, but how do we get people to do what they don\u2019t want to do?\u201d Indeed, it\u2019s far easier to uproot a small plant than to change someone\u2019s mind, and Prof. Florens has an entire country to convince that saving their native forests is not only possible, but worth the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eva Colberg describes the need for invasive species management to preserve endemic species on Mauritius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,17,19,35,37],"tags":[95,138,463,538,556,705,846,925],"class_list":["post-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epiphytes","category-forest-restoration","category-islands","category-tropical-ecological-restoration","category-tropical-forest-restoration","tag-asplenium-nidus","tag-black-river-gorges-national-park","tag-invasive-species","tag-macaque","tag-mauritius","tag-polystachya-jubaultii","tag-strawberry-guava","tag-vincent-florens"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nher.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/03_vincent-florens_eva-colberg-scaled.jpg?fit=1707%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}