Differential survival among Tahitian tree snails during a mass extinction event: persistence of the rare and fecund
| Autor: | Cindy S. Bick, Diarmaid Ó Foighil, Trevor Coote |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Extinction biology Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Fauna Partulidae Tree snail biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Taxon Euglandina rosea Endemism Predator Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| Zdroj: | Oryx. 50:169-175 |
| ISSN: | 1365-3008 0030-6053 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/s0030605314000325 |
| Popis: | The deliberate introduction of the rosy wolf snailEuglandina roseato the Society Islands in the 1970s led to the mass extirpation of its rich Partulidae (Pilsbry, 1900) fauna, comprising approximately half of all species in this Pacific island tree snail family. On Tahiti ongoing field surveys have documented the survival of two of seven endemic species ofPartula(P. hyalinaand/orP. clara) in 38 valleys.E. roseais now a potent extinction agent across Oceania and determining the factors enabling these two taxa to endure may have wide conservation import. We hypothesized thatP. hyalinaandP. clarahave survived because they were the most abundant and/or widespread species and that they will eventually become extinct. We lack demographic data contemporaneous with predator introduction, but an early 20th century study by H.E. Crampton provides historical demographic data for intact Tahitian partulid populations. Crampton found thatP. claraandP. hyalina, although widespread, were consistently rarer than their now-extirpated congeners, including in the 23 valleys he surveyed that retain surviving populations. Given this result, and the recent finding thatP. claraandP. hyalinacomprise a discrete founding lineage in Tahiti, it is plausible that some shared biological attribute(s) may have contributed to their survival. Crampton recorded the clutch sizes of thousands of gravid Tahitian partulids and found that these two taxa had higher instantaneous mean clutch sizes than did co-occurring congeners. Higher fecundities may have contributed to the survival ofP. hyalinaandP. clarain the valleys of Tahiti. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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