Interactions of climate change with biological invasions and land use in the Hawaiian Islands: modeling the fate of endemic birds using a geographic information system

Author:

Benning, Tracy L., LaPointe, Dennis, Atkinson, Carter T., Vitousek, Peter M.

Title:

Interactions of climate change with biological invasions and land use in the Hawaiian Islands: modeling the fate of endemic birds using a geographic information system

Periodical:

PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

Year:

2002

Volume:

99

Pages:

14246-14249

Subject:

Hawaiian honeycreepers Drepanidinae Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge Alakai Swamp Kauai Hanawi Natural Area Reserve Maui Climate Birds ecology

Summary:

The Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanidae) represent a dramatic example of anthropogenic extinction and an excellent illustration of evolutionary radiation, with a single colonization event giving rise to 19 extant and at least 10 extinct species. The introduction of predators, (such as cattle and sheep) as well as diseases, (particularly of mosquitoes and avian malaria), in addition to crop and pasture land that has replaced their forest habitat, has eliminated these birds from the remaining low- and mid-elevation forests. In addition, landscape analyses of three high-elevation forest refuges show that anthropogenic climate change is likely to combine with past land-use changes and biological invasions that will drive several of the remaining species to extinction. Following an analysis that was done during this study, it was found that this is likely to happen on the islands of Kauai and Hawaii.

Label:

Birds - General

URL:

http://www.pnas.org/content/99/22/14246.full.pdf

Date:

2002 October 29

Collection:

Periodicals