Community structure of woody plants on islands along a bioclimatic gradient

Peer reviewe

Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS) : a proposal for the long-term coordinated survey and monitoring of native island forest biota

Islands harbour evolutionary and ecologically unique biota, which are currently disproportionately threatened by a multitude of anthropogenic factors, including habitat loss, invasive species and climate change. Native forests on oceanic islands are important refugia for endemic species, many of which are rare and highly threatened. Long-term monitoring schemes for those biota and ecosystems are urgently needed: (i) to provide quantitative baselines for detecting changes within island ecosystems, (ii) to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management actions, and (iii) to identify general ecological patterns and processes using multiple island systems as repeated 'natural experiments'. In this contribution, we call for a Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS) for monitoring the remaining native island forests, using bryophytes, vascular plants, selected groups of arthropods and vertebrates as model taxa. As a basis for the GIMS, we also present new, optimized monitoring protocols for bryophytes and arthropods that were developed based on former standardized inventory protocols. Effective inventorying and monitoring of native island forests will require: (i) permanent plots covering diverse ecological gradients (e.g. elevation, age of terrain, anthropogenic disturbance); (ii) a multiple-taxa approach that is based on standardized and replicable protocols; (iii) a common set of indicator taxa and community properties that are indicative of native island forests' welfare, building on, and harmonized with existing sampling and monitoring efforts; (iv) capacity building and training of local researchers, collaboration and continuous dialogue with local stakeholders; and (v) long-term commitment by funding agencies to maintain a global network of native island forest monitoring plots.Peer reviewe

Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems

Summit ecosystems of oceanic islands constitute one of the most ephemeral and isolated ecosystems existing, harboring specific features that confer on their biota an outstanding distinctness. Summits are short-lived entities, being the last ecosystems to be constructed during the growth of the new oceanic island, and the first to vanish due either to island subsidence, island erosion, or both. Whereas their geological emergence/disappearance is controlled by the volcanic/erosion activity, Pleistocene glaciations in the past million years, by forcing the altitudinal shift of the timberline, have also likely created or destroyed summit ecosystems, enabling the appearance of alpine ecosystems during glacial maxima where they were not present in interglacial periods and vice versa. On the other hand, summit ecosystems constitute islands within islands, being more isolated from climatically similar ecosystems than the coastlines of the islands containing them. Thus summit biota, frequently displaying a high endemicity, may originate either through dispersal from other close summit ecosystems during peak periods, or from the colonization of the summits and later evolution to the new conditions from mid-altitude species of the same island. Conversely, if peak periods are absent, the disappearance of summit ecosystems implies the extinction or extirpation of their constitutive species. Current summit species have likely occupied a much larger area during glacial periods. Thus the summits may be classified as climatic refuges. This is especially the case if glacial periods were associated with much drier conditions on oceanic islands as is the case on continents

Diversification des espèces et différenciation dans le point-chaud de biodiversité de Madagascar et des Iles de l Océan Indien

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Importance du processus de régénération naturelle dans le maintien de la diversité en forêt tropicale humide

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Les poissons arc-en-ciel de Papouasie (Melanotaeniidae) (evolution et systématique)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Causes of genetic differenciation at a very small spatial scale in an island bird (zosterops borbonicus)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Etude spatio-temporelle de la distribution de bambous dans le Sud-ouest amazonien (sud Pérou) histoire, dynamique et futur d'une végétation monodominante en forêt tropicale humide

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Etude spatio-temporelle de la distribution de bambous dans le Sud-ouest amazonien (sud Pérou) histoire, dynamique et futur d'une végétation monodominante en forêt tropicale humide

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Randomness, determinism and edification of insular ecological communities (a case of the Hawaiian and indian ocean spiders)

TOULOUSE3-BU Sciences (315552104) / SudocSudocFranceF