Consequences of extinction and introduction of animals for interactions on islands  Seminar

Anthropogenic impact has changed ecosystems around the world, introducing non-native species and causing extinctions. Most of the recent vertebrate extinctions have happened on islands. The current biodiversity crisis is therefore very much an island crisis. The resulting changes in community compositions have in turn changed the interactions between species, risking cascades of secondary extinctions in the future. I will discuss the consequences of extinctions and introductions of fruit-eating animals for plant-animal interactions, on Mauritius and 111 other islands worldwide, across 19 archipelagos.

Speaker Information

Dr Julia Helena Heinen - Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen

View Dr Julia H. Heinen's videos about research here.