Forecast increase in invasive rabbit spread into ecosystems of an oceanic island (Tenerife) under climate change.

The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a pest and a conservation problem on many islands, where its heavy grazing pressure threatens many endemic plants with extinction. Previous studies in its native and introduced range have highlighted the high spatial variability of rabbit abundance at local and landscape scales, depending on many factors such as the existence of different habitats. Modeling of the species can be useful to better understand spatial patterns and to prioritize actions, especially in those regions in which rabbits have become invasive.

Natural and human-impacted diversity of bryophytes along an elevational gradient on an oceanic island (La Palma, Canarias).

Bryophytes have been proposed as ideal indicators of ecosystem change, because they are important components of forest integrity, and considerable research indicates that some groups are sensitive to the changes associated with specific human disturbances. Bryophyte richness and abundance have been found to vary predictably along elevational gradients, but the role of human impacts on these distribution patterns remains unclear. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of human disturbance on the elevational patterns of bryophyte diversity, along an elevational gradient.

Endemic plant species are more palatable to introduced herbivores than non-endemics.

Islands harbour a spectacular diversity and unique species composition. This uniqueness is mainly a result of endemic species that have evolved in situ in the absence of mammal herbivores. However, island endemism is under severe threat by introduced herbivores.

Plant invasion and speciation along elevational gradients on the oceanic island La Palma, Canary Islands.

Ecosystems that provide environmental opportunities but are poor in species and functional richness generally support speciation as well as invasion processes. These processes are expected not to be equally effective along elevational gradients due to specific ecological, spatial, and anthropogenic filters, thus controlling the dispersal and establishment of species. Here, we investigate speciation and invasion processes along elevational gradients.

Oceanic islands are not sinks of biodiversity in spore-producing plants.

Islands have traditionally been considered as migratory and evolutionary dead ends for two main reasons: island colonizers are typically assumed to lose their dispersal power, and continental back colonization has been regarded as unlikely because of niche preemption. The hypothesis that islands might actually represent dynamic refugia and migratory stepping stones for species that are effective dispersers, and in particular, for spore-producing plants, is formally tested here, using the archipelagos of the Azores, Canary Islands, and Madeira, as a model. Population genetic analyses based on nuclear microsatellite variation indicate that dispersal ability of the moss Platyhypnidium riparioides does not decrease in the island setting.