The influence of man on the floras and faunas of southern islands

Abstract

Most of the world's tropical and sub-tropical oceanic islands were settled by man, and their floras and faunas modified by his activities, some centuries before the development of any scientific interest in them. The original vegetation and fauna of islands like Ascension, the Azores, Bermuda, St Helena or Mauritius cannot now be described with any degree of certainty, while the native communities of many others have been markedly changed. Consequently the few remaining undisturbed oceanic islands are of great scientific importance, and many of these lie in the southern temperate and sub-Antarctic zones.