Oceanic Islands

The conservation of endemic fauna in freshwater ecosystems is a topical issue on small oceanic islands. Because these endemics have limited distributions, they are more vulnerable to extinction. This study is the first to clarify the distribution of freshwater macroinvertebrates including endemic and alien species in streams with dams and associated reservoirs on the Ogasawara Islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. In 2007, we conducted a field survey in streams and reservoirs of the Yatsuse River system and collected 22 taxonomic groups from 13 stations. Hierarchal cluster analysis and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) were performed for the presence/absence data of the macroinvertebrates, and the results indicated that (1) most of endemic species were present in inlet streams of dam reservoirs, (2) these endemic species were absent in the bottom sediments of the reservoirs because of oxygen depletion and (3) dams may be barriers to the migration of some species of amphidromous crustaceans. Because human modifications, such as dams and associated reservoirs, on a small oceanic island can rapidly result in fragmentation or loss of freshwater habitats of endemic species, the remaining habitat of these species, such as headwater streams, must be protected and preserved to avoid species extinction.

Little is known concerning the effects of wildfires on tree radial growth and their climatic response under contrasting regimes of fog water inputs on oceanic islands. On Tenerife, Canary Islands, windward slopes are humid with high-fog frequency due to influence of wet trade winds, while climate on leeward slopes is more arid. We used tree-ring records of Pinus canariensis Sweet ex Spreng. to quantify the effects of a fire of known date on radial growth and determine the main limiting climatic factors for growth. Radial growth patterns and their responsiveness to fire severity and climatic variation differed between windward and leeward slopes. Surface fire did not significantly impact growth, while crown fire caused short-term growth reduction, and even cessation, more pronounced on the windward slope. Growth rates, tree-ring common signal, and climate sensitivity were smaller on the windward slope, with cold winters, and summer water stress limiting growth. On the leeward slope, climate explained a greater amount of growth variation mainly due to negative effects of high October–December sea-level pressures causing dry winter conditions. Contrasting growth dynamics on both slopes may result from diverging physiological effects of water inputs and reduced radiation caused by fog drip. Our findings suggest that dating growth suppressions and absent rings are useful to date past high-severity crown fires in P. canariensis forests, in addition to ordinary fire scars dating indicative of low-severity surface fires.

Feral cats have been directly responsible for the extinction of numerous species on islands worldwide, including endemic species of mammals, birds and reptiles. The diet of feral cats in the main habitats of the Canary Islands, as generally occurred on oceanic islands, is mainly composed of introduced mammals, and native species of birds, reptiles and insects. The impact of feral cat upon the endangered species was assessed by evaluating their relative abundance in the cats’ diet and by considering their current conservation status. A total of 68 different preys were identified at species level in all studies carried out in the Canary Islands (5 mammals, 16 birds, 15 reptiles and 32 invertebrates). From all the species preyed by feral cats in the Canary Islands, only four of them are considered threatened by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: one endemic bird Saxicola dacotiae and three endemic giant lizards, Gallotia simonyi, Gallotia intermedia, and Gallotia gomerana. Although some efforts on management control have been carried out, it is necessary to enforce these conservation activities on those areas of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro where giant lizards are still present. Furthermore some local areas where endangered bird species are highly predated should be protected. Nevertheless, it is important to take into account the presence of other introduced species such as rats, mice or rabbits in order to avoid problems derived from the hyperpredation process and mesopredator release effect.

Due to their permeable skin few amphibians are able to tolerate dry or salty conditions, a characteristic that has prevented most species from colonising oceanic islands. The most diverse oceanic island amphibian fauna is found in the Seychelles, an archipelago of about 115 granitic and coralline islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600km east of mainland Africa, and northeast of

The morpho-structural evolution of La Palma (Canary Islands) is characterized by vertical movements responsible for/or favoring large landslides. In its northern part, conglomerate terraces, nowadays topographically hanged and re-incised by the present-day ‘Barranco de Las Angustias’, reveal a recent ongoing uplift process. Lava flows covered by this geological unit have been sampled and dated by the K/Ar Cassignol technique at

The large-scale volcanic lineaments in Iceland are an axial zone, which is delineated by the Reykjanes, West and North Volcanic Zones (RVZ, WVZ, NVZ) and the East Volcanic Zone (EVZ), which is growing in length by propagation to the southwest through pre-existing crust. These zones are connected across central Iceland by the Mid-Iceland Belt (MIB). Other volcanically active areas are the two intraplate belts of Öræfajökull (ÖVB) and Snæfellsnes (SVB). The principal structure of the volcanic zones are the 30 volcanic systems, where 12 are comprised of a fissure swarm and a central volcano, 7 of a central volcano, 9 of a fissure swarm and a central domain, and 2 are typified by a central domain alone.Volcanism in Iceland is unusually diverse for an oceanic island because of special geological and climatological circumstances. It features nearly all volcano types and eruption styles known on Earth. The first order grouping of volcanoes is in accordance with recurrence of eruptions on the same vent system and is divided into central volcanoes (polygenetic) and basalt volcanoes (monogenetic). The basalt volcanoes are categorized further in accordance with vent geometry (circular or linear), type of vent accumulation, characteristic style of eruption and volcanic environment (i.e. subaerial, subglacial, submarine).Eruptions are broadly grouped into effusive eruptions where >95% of the erupted magma is lava, explosive eruptions if >95% of the erupted magma is tephra (volume calculated as dense rock equivalent, DRE), and mixed eruptions if the ratio of lava to tephra occupy the range in between these two end-members. Although basaltic volcanism dominates, the activity in historical time (i.e. last 11 centuries) features expulsion of basalt, andesite, dacite and rhyolite magmas that have produced effusive eruptions of Hawaiian and flood lava magnitudes, mixed eruptions featuring phases of Strombolian to Plinian intensities, and explosive phreatomagmatic and magmatic eruptions spanning almost the entire intensity scale; from Surtseyan to Phreatoplinian in case of “wet” eruptions and Strombolian to Plinian in terms of “dry” eruptions. In historical time the magma volume extruded by individual eruptions ranges from ∼1 m3 to ∼20 km3 DRE, reflecting variable magma compositions, effusion rates and eruption durations.All together 205 eruptive events have been identified in historical time by detailed mapping and dating of events along with extensive research on documentation of eruptions in historical chronicles. Of these 205 events, 192 represent individual eruptions and 13 are classified as “Fires”, which include two or more eruptions defining an episode of volcanic activity that lasts for months to years. Of the 159 eruptions verified by identification of their products 124 are explosive, effusive eruptions are 14 and mixed eruptions are 21. Eruptions listed as reported-only are 33. Eight of the Fires are predominantly effusive and the remaining five include explosive activity that produced extensive tephra layers. The record indicates an average of 20–25 eruptions per century in Iceland, but eruption frequency has varied on time scale of decades. An apparent stepwise increase in eruption frequency is observed over the last 1100 years that reflects improved documentation of eruptive events with time. About 80% of the verified eruptions took place on the EVZ where the four most active volcanic systems (Grímsvötn, Bárdarbunga–Veidivötn, Hekla and Katla) are located and 9%, 5%, 1% and 0.5% on the RVZ–WVZ, NVZ, ÖVB, and SVB, respectively. Source volcano for ∼4.5% of the eruptions is not known.Magma productivity over 1100 years equals about 87 km3 DRE with basaltic magma accounting for about 79% and intermediate and acid magma accounting for 16% and 5%, respectively. Productivity is by far highest on the EVZ where 71 km3 (∼82%) were erupted, with three flood lava eruptions accounting for more than one half of that volume. RVZ–WVZ accounts for 13% of the magma and the NWZ and the intraplate belts for 2.5% each. Collectively the axial zone (RVZ, WVZ, NVZ) has only erupted 15–16% of total magma volume in the last 1130 years.

The Jurassic Bonanza arc, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, represents an exhumed island arc crustal section of broadly diorite composition. We studied bodies of mafic and ultramafic cumulates within deeper levels of the arc to constrain the conditions and fractionation pathways leading from high-Mg basalt to andesite and dacite. Major element trends coupled with textural information show the intercumulus crystallization of amphibole, as large oikocrysts enclosing olivine in primitive cumulates controls the compositions of liquids until the onset of plagioclase crystallization. This process is cryptic, occurring only in the plutonic section, and explains the paucity of amphibole in mafic arc volcanics and the change in the Dy/Yb ratios in many arc suites with differentiation. The correlation of octahedral Al in hornblende with pressure in liquidus experiments on high-Mg basalts is applied as an empirical barometer to hornblendes from the Bonanza arc. It shows that crystallization took place at 470–880 MPa in H2O-saturated primitive basaltic magmas. There are no magmatic equivalents to bulk continental crust in the Bonanza arc; no amount of delamination of ultramafic cumulates will shift the bulk arc composition to the high-Mg# andesite composition of bulk continental crust. Garnet removal from wet magmas appears to be the key factor in producing continental crust, requiring high pressures and thick crust. Because oceanic island arcs are built on thinner crust, the long-term process generating the bulk continental crust is the accretion of island arcs to continental margins with attendant tectonic thickening.

Ants have the capacity to reach unusually high densities, mostly in their introduced ranges. Numerical dominance is often cited as key to the ability of exotic ants to displace native ant species, reduce the abundance of invertebrates and negatively impact upon bird, land crab and other vertebrate populations. On Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, the yellow crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes (Jerdon), forms supercolonies, where extremely high densities of foraging ants have contributed to ‘invasional meltdown’ in rainforest areas. Densities of up to 2254 foraging ants per m2 and a biomass of 1.85 g per m2 were recorded, and nest densities reached 10.5 nest entrances per m2. Populations of A. gracilipes can overcome and kill red endemic land crabs (Gecarcoidea natalis) over 100 times their own biomass. This is the highest recorded density of foraging ants, and adds another element to the definition of ‘supercolony’ of unicolonial ants. This paper documents one extreme in a continuum of densities of unicolonial, invasive ant species and highlights the need to incorporate forager densities into invasive ant research.