Anthropogenic extinction on islands: a synthesis

Abstract

Abstract ‘Anthropogenic extinction on islands: a synthesis’ provides a review of extinction data describing the magnitude of island endemic species losses, amounting to >60% of extinctions globally since 1500 CE. It reviews the meanings of extinction and depicts the categorization of threat to surviving species through the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List system. It describes how biodiversity losses may be multiplicative through trophic cascades. It assesses the key drivers of extinction, past and present, and notes the importance of synergisms between them. It reviews impacts of habitat degradation and loss, predation and collection by humans, and the impacts of invasive non-native fauna (especially vertebrate predators and herbivores), flora and disease organisms. It describes resulting modifications to pollinator and dispersal networks, and occasional incidence of hybridization between native and non-native species. It provides a synthesis of why island life is particularly susceptible to anthropogenic extinction.