Human influence on the terrestrial biota and biotic communities of New Zealand

Atkinson, I. A. E.; Cameron, E. K.

doi:10.1016/0169-5347(93)90008-d

Cited by 96 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…¼ 109, p , 0.001; figure 1) than exotic species. The proportion of exotic bird and plant species is similar across realms except for Australasia (see the electronic supplementary material, figure S3), which is particularly skewed by the high proportions of exotic species in New Zealand cities (see the electronic supplementary material, tables S1 and S2), due primarily to deliberate introductions [46] and the presence of unfilled ecological niches. The relative proportion of exotic plant species is much greater than that of exotic bird species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

et al. 2014

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Urbanization contributes to the loss of the world's biodiversity and the homogenization of its biota. However, comparative studies of urban biodiversity leading to robust generalities of the status and drivers of biodiversity in cities at the global scale are lacking. Here, we compiled the largest global dataset to date of two diverse taxa in cities: birds (54 cities) and plants (110 cities). We found that the majority of urban bird and plant species are native in the world's cities. Few plants and birds are cosmopolitan, the most common being Columba livia and Poa annua. The density of bird and plant species (the number of species per km 2 ) has declined substantially:& 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.on May 10, 2018 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ Downloaded from only 8% of native bird and 25% of native plant species are currently present compared with estimates of non-urban density of species. The current density of species in cities and the loss in density of species was best explained by anthropogenic features (landcover, city age) rather than by non-anthropogenic factors (geography, climate, topography). As urbanization continues to expand, efforts directed towards the conservation of intact vegetation within urban landscapes could support higher concentrations of both bird and plant species. Despite declines in the density of species, cities still retain endemic native species, thus providing opportunities for regional and global biodiversity conservation, restoration and education.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

et al. 2014

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“…Yet the exclusion experiments showed that vertebrate pollinators were still important at these invaded sites, and the video footage revealed the identity of these pollinators as recent colonist silvereyes and invasive ship rats, both of which have only established in New Zealand following European colonization in the mid-1800s [26,27]. Our results show that these novel vertebrate species are maintaining pollination to some degree for each of the three plant species at these invaded sites, and without this compensation, the plants would probably be experiencing high pollen limitation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive rats and recent colonist birds partially compensate for the loss of endemic New Zealand pollinators

Pattemore

Wilcove

2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Reported declines of pollinator populations around the world have led to increasing concerns about the consequences for pollination as a critical ecosystem function and service. Pollination could be maintained through compensation if remaining pollinators increase their contribution or if novel species are recruited as pollinators, but empirical evidence of this compensation is so far lacking. Using a natural experiment in New Zealand where endemic vertebrate pollinators still occur on one offshore island reserve despite their local extinction on the adjacent North Island, we investigated whether compensation could maintain pollination in the face of pollinator extinctions. We show that two recently arrived species in New Zealand, the invasive ship rat (Rattus rattus) and the recent colonist silvereye (Zosterops lateralis; a passerine bird), at least partly maintain pollination for three forest plant species in northern New Zealand, and without this compensation, these plants would be significantly more pollen-limited. This study provides empirical evidence that widespread non-native species can play an important role in maintaining ecosystem functions, a role that needs to be assessed when planning invasive species control or eradication programmes.

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“…Other studies have shown that the effect of forest disturbances can have ramifications beyond the immediate locality of the disturbance [20,48]. However, although widespread disturbance could affect rates of stand-level invasion, the withinstand spread is less likely to be influenced by disturbance, making these predictions more robust.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbance affects short-term facilitation, but not long-term saturation, of exotic plant invasion in New Zealand forest

et al. 2010

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We investigate the spread of an exotic herb, Hieracium lepidulum, into a New Zealand Nothofagus forest with the aim of understanding how stand-development of tree populations, propagule pressure and invader persistence, affect invasion across the landscape and within communities. Using data repeatedly collected over 35 years, from 250 locations, we parametrize continuous-time Markov chain models and use these models to examine future projections of the invasion under a range of hypothetical scenarios. We found that the probability of invasion into a stand was relatively high following canopy disturbance and that local abundance of Hieracium was promoted by minor disturbances. However, model predictions extrapolated 45 years into the future show that neither the rate of landscape-level invasion, nor local population growth of Hieracium, was affected much by changing the frequency of canopy disturbance events. Instead, invasion levels were strongly affected by the ability of Hieracium to persist in the understorey following forest canopy closure, and by propagule supply from streams, forest edges and plants already established within the stand. Our results show that disturbance frequency has surprisingly little influence on the long-term trajectory of invasion, while invader persistence strongly determines invasion patterns.

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Human influence on the terrestrial biota and biotic communities of New Zealand

Cited by 96 publications

References 12 publications

A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

A global analysis of the impacts of urbanization on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthropogenic drivers

Invasive rats and recent colonist birds partially compensate for the loss of endemic New Zealand pollinators

Disturbance affects short-term facilitation, but not long-term saturation, of exotic plant invasion in New Zealand forest

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