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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13116 | DOI Listing |
Conserv Biol
August 2018
Centre for Compassionate Conservation, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
June 2008
Landcare Research, P.O. Box 40, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand.
The pristine island ecosystems of East Polynesia were among the last places on Earth settled by prehistoric people, and their colonization triggered a devastating transformation. Overhunting contributed to widespread faunal extinctions and the decline of marine megafauna, fires destroyed lowland forests, and the introduction of the omnivorous Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) led to a new wave of predation on the biota. East Polynesian islands preserve exceptionally detailed records of the initial prehistoric impacts on highly vulnerable ecosystems, but nearly all such studies are clouded by persistent controversies over the timing of initial human colonization, which has resulted in proposed settlement chronologies varying from approximately 200 B.
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