Hawai‘i forest review: Synthesizing the ecology, evolution, and conservation of a model system

Barton, Kasey E.; Westerband, Andrea C.; Ostertag, Rebecca; Stacy, Elizabeth A.; Winter, Kāwika B.; Drake, Donald R.; Fortini, Lucas B.; Litton, Creighton M.; Cordell, Susan; Krushelnycky, Paul D.; Kawelo, Kapua; Feliciano, Kealoha; Bennett, Gordon M.; Knight, Tiffany M.

doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2021.125631

Cited by 29 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 399 publications

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“…Though some habitat loss is necessary to meet human needs, when natural habitats are changed or modified the results can be very negative. Examples include the massive replacement of forest habitats by open grassland that took place in the Hawaiian Islands, which also changed landscape hydrology and fire regimes and promoted the massive extinction of forest dependent species, and the large-scale alterations of coastal habitats (including mangroves) for real estate and tourism purposes ( Barton et al, 2021 ). While some of the negative effects of habitat loss and modification have already been manifested in biodiversity losses, considerable extinction debts ( Triantis et al, 2010 ) and interactions with other drivers make it difficult to assess their full long-term impact.…”

Section: Human Impacts On Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ warning – The outstanding biodiversity of islands is in peril

Fernández‐Palacios

Kreft

Irl

et al. 2021

Global Ecology and Conservation

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108

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Despite islands contributing only 6.7% of land surface area, they harbor ~20% of the Earth’s biodiversity, but unfortunately also ~50% of the threatened species and 75% of the known extinctions since the European expansion around the globe. Due to their geological and geographic history and characteristics, islands act simultaneously as cradles of evolutionary diversity and museums of formerly widespread lineages—elements that permit islands to achieve an outstanding endemicity. Nevertheless, the majority of these endemic species are inherently vulnerable due to genetic and demographic factors linked with the way islands are colonized. Here, we stress the great variation of islands in their physical geography (area, isolation, altitude, latitude) and history (age, human colonization, human density). We provide examples of some of the most species rich and iconic insular radiations. Next, we analyze the natural vulnerability of the insular biota, linked to genetic and demographic factors as a result of founder events as well as the typically small population sizes of many island species. We note that, whereas evolution toward island syndromes (including size shifts, derived insular woodiness, altered dispersal ability, loss of defense traits, reduction in clutch size) might have improved the ability of species to thrive under natural conditions on islands, it has simultaneously made island biota disproportionately vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures such as habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive species, and climate change. This has led to the documented extinction of at least 800 insular species in the past 500 years, in addition to the many that had already gone extinct following the arrival of first human colonists on islands in prehistoric times. Finally, we summarize current scientific knowledge on the ongoing biodiversity loss on islands worldwide and express our serious concern that the current trajectory will continue to decimate the unique and irreplaceable natural heritage of the world’s islands. We conclude that drastic actions are urgently needed to bend the curve of the alarming rates of island biodiversity loss.

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Section: Human Impacts On Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientists’ warning – The outstanding biodiversity of islands is in peril

Fernández‐Palacios

Kreft

Irl

et al. 2021

Global Ecology and Conservation

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108

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“…Our results highlight that alien woody species likely establish in island ecosystems by occupying empty niche space and/or habitats that are too harsh to compete directly with native woody species. While these alien species are clearly changing the composition and dynamics of Hawaiian forests (Craven et al ., 2019; Barton et al ., 2021), our results show that biological invasions are shaped in part by the same environmental and biogeographical factors, such as climate and soil age, that generate and maintain patterns of native biodiversity. Our sensitivity analysis provides evidence that the context dependency of alien woody invasions across Hawai’i arises due to ecological interactions between abiotic, anthropogenic, and biotic factors (Catford et al ., 2022), particularly along gradients in soil age, human impacts, and temperature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oceanic archipelagos, such as the Hawaiian islands, are frequently used as natural laboratories to disentangle ecological and evolutionary drivers of native biodiversity patterns (Emerson, 2002; Gillespie, 2016; Craven et al ., 2019), yet also provide a compelling template for understanding biological invasions because of their recency and severity (Barton et al ., 2021; Wohlwend et al ., 2021). Here, we examine patterns of invasions of alien woody species, which represent approximately 60% of alien species on oceanic islands (Kueffer et al ., 2010), and the relative importance of abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic drivers and their interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…S1; Craven et al 2018). More specifically, the sensitivity analysis allows us to evaluate whether the relative importance of biotic filtering, via the phylogenetic and functional similarity of alien species to the native community, is due to a unique feature of native Hawaiian forests - the hyperdominance of M. polymorpha (Craven et al 2018, Barton et al 2021) - or a more general feature, such as their phylogenetic structure (Bach et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interacting abiotic and biotic drivers shape woody invasions across Hawaiian forests

Craven

Chase

Knight

2022

Preprint

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The same features that generate biodiversity patterns across and within oceanic islands over evolutionary time - interactions between isolation, area, and heterogeneity - also influence their vulnerability to biological invasions. Here, we identify the factors that shape the richness and abundance of woody aliens in forest communities across the Hawaiian archipelago, and assess the relative importance of abiotic, biotic, and anthropogenic factors and their interactions on the establishment and dominance of woody alien species. Using a database of 460 forest plots distributed across the six major Hawaiian islands, we examine variation in i) relative alien species richness and abundance as a function of multiple factors (e.g., temperature, aridity, soil age, and the human influence index) and ii) establishment and dominance of alien species as a function of abiotic and anthropogenic factors, as well as phylogenetic and trait distinctiveness. We found that relative alien species richness and abundance were higher in areas where temperature was high and aridity low. Gradients in temperature, aridity, soil age, and human influence also modulated the importance of biotic factors in determining establishment of alien species. In contrast, whether these alien species could become locally dominant was not strongly influenced by abiotic or biotic factors, or their interactions. Our results suggest that environmental filtering mediates the strength of biotic filtering in determining where woody aliens are able to colonize and establish on these oceanic islands, but not whether they become dominant. The strong context dependence of multi-species invasions highlights the complexity of developing management strategies to mitigate the biodiversity and ecosystem impacts of biological invasions.

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“…Although most ecosystems have been affected to some extent by species introductions, the Hawaiian Archipelago is an extreme example of a novel ecosystem, providing a unique opportunity to examine the structure and functioning of highly degraded communities [9,[26][27][28]. Across the Hawaiian islands, at least 9% of the plant species are extinct and over half of the remaining species are threatened with extinction [29], whereas nearly all native passerines are extinct or near extinction [30], including at least 24 fruiteating birds lost over the last 800 years [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms underlying interaction frequencies and robustness in a novel seed dispersal network: lessons for restoration

Vizentin‐Bugoni

2022

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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As human-caused extinctions and invasions accumulate across the planet, understanding the processes governing ecological functions mediated by species interactions, and anticipating the effect of species loss on such functions become increasingly urgent. In seed dispersal networks, the mechanisms that influence interaction frequencies may also influence the capacity of a species to switch to alternative partners (rewiring), influencing network robustness. Studying seed dispersal interactions in novel ecosystems on O‘ahu island, Hawai‘i, we test whether the same mechanisms defining interaction frequencies can regulate rewiring and increase network robustness to simulated species extinctions. We found that spatial and temporal overlaps were the primary mechanisms underlying interaction frequencies, and the loss of the more connected species affected networks to a greater extent. Further, rewiring increased network robustness, and morphological matching and spatial and temporal overlaps between partners were more influential on network robustness than species abundances. We argue that to achieve self-sustaining ecosystems, restoration initiatives can consider optimal morphological matching and spatial and temporal overlaps between consumers and resources to maximize chances of native plant dispersal. Specifically, restoration initiatives may benefit from replacing invasive species with native species possessing characteristics that promote frequent interactions and increase the probability of rewiring (such as long fruiting periods, small seeds and broad distributions).

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Hawai‘i forest review: Synthesizing the ecology, evolution, and conservation of a model system

Cited by 29 publications

References 399 publications

Scientists’ warning – The outstanding biodiversity of islands is in peril

Scientists’ warning – The outstanding biodiversity of islands is in peril

Interacting abiotic and biotic drivers shape woody invasions across Hawaiian forests

Mechanisms underlying interaction frequencies and robustness in a novel seed dispersal network: lessons for restoration

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