RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 A reappraisal of the role of humans in the biotic disturbance of islands
A1 Delgado, Juan Domingo
A1 Riera, Rodrigo
A1 Rodríguez, Ricardo A.
A1 González-Moreno, Pablo
A1 Fernández-Palacios, José María
K1 Island disturbance
K1 Alien species
K1 Island diversity patterns
K1 Especies exóticas
K1 Patrones de diversidad de islas
AB Traditionally, islands have been used as ecologicaland biogeographical models because of their assumedecological simplicity, reduced ecosystem size andisolation. The vast number of Earth’s oceanic islandsplay a key role in maintaining global biodiversity andserve as a rich source of evolutionary novelty. Researchinto the factors determining diversity patterns onislands must disentangle natural phenomena fromanthropogenic causes of habitat transformation,interruption and enhancement of biological fluxes andspecies losses and gains in these geographically andecologically limited environments. The anthropogenicecological forcing of communication through globaltransport has profound implications regarding island–continent links. Anthropogenic disturbances alongcontinental margins and insular coasts contribute toshaping island biotas in ecological time, but alsohave evolutionary consequences of global resonance.Patterns of human landscape and resource use(geographical space and ecological communities andspecies), as well as increasing ecological connectivity ofoceanic islands and mainland, are chief driving forcesin island biogeography that should be reappraised.Global indirect effects of human activities (i.e. climatechange) may also affect islands and interact withthese processes. We review the implications of directand indirect anthropogenic disturbances on islandbiotic patterns, focusing on island size, isolation andintroduced exotic species, as well as the unsettled issueof oceanic island ecological vulnerability.
PB Cambridge University Press
SN 0376-8929
YR 2017
FD 2017
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/16374
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/16374
LA en
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 26-abr-2024