Climate change leads to increasing population density and impacts of a key island invader

The considerable threats of invasive rodents to island biodiversity are likely to be compounded by climate change. Forecasts for such interactions have been most pronounced for the Southern Ocean islands where ameliorating conditions are expected to decrease thermal and resource restrictions on rodents. Firm evidence for changing rodent populations in response to climate change, and demonstrations of associated impacts on the terrestrial environment, are nonetheless entirely absent for the region. Using data collected over three decades on sub-Antarctic Marion Island, we tested empirically whether mouse populations have changed through time and whether these changes can be associated significantly with changing abiotic conditions. Changes in invertebrate populations, which have previously been attributed to mouse predation, but with little explicit demographic analysis, were also examined to determine whether they can be associated with changing mouse populations. The total number of mi...入侵啮齿动物对岛屿生物多样性造成的严重威胁，或因气候变化进一步加剧。针对此类物种互作的预测结果在南大洋岛屿上最为显著：预计当地环境改善将降低啮齿动物面临的热量与资源限制。然而，该区域至今仍缺乏能够证明啮齿动物种群随气候变化发生改变的确凿证据，也未发现此类种群变化对陆地环境产生相关影响的实证案例。本研究依托在亚南极马里恩岛（sub-Antarctic Marion Island）收集的长达三十年的调研数据，通过实证检验探究了小鼠种群是否随时间发生动态变化，以及这些变化是否与非生物环境条件的改变存在显著关联。此前有研究将无脊椎动物种群的变化归因于小鼠捕食，但该推论几乎未开展过明确的种群数量统计分析。本研究同时对无脊椎动物种群的变化进行了考察，以判断其是否与小鼠种群的动态变化存在关联。本研究统计的总[原文内容未完结]。