Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS): a proposal for the long-term coordinated survey and monitoring of native island forest biota

Paulo Alexandre Vieira Borges (1) , Pedro Cardoso (2) , Holger Kreft (3) , Robert J. Whittaker (4) , Simone Fattorini , Brent C. Emerson (5) , Artur Gil , Rosemary Gillespie , Thomas Matthews , Ana Santos , Manuel Steinbauer , Christoph Thébaud , Claudine Ah-Peng (6) , Isabel R. Amorim , Silvia Calvo Aranda (7) , Ana Moura Arroz , José Azevedo , Mário Boieiro , Luis Borda-De-Água , José C. Carvalho , Rui Elias , José Fernández-Palacios , Margarita Florencio , Juana González-Mancebo , Lawrence Heaney , Joaquin Hortal (8) , Christoph Kueffer (9) , Benoit Lequette , José Martín-Esquivel , Heriberto López , Lucas Lamelas-López , José Marcelino , Rui Nunes , Pedro Oromí , Jairo Patiño , Antonio Perez , Carla Rego , P. Ribeiro , François Rigal (10, 11) , Pedro Rodrigues , Andrew Rominger , Margarida Santos-Reis (12) , Hanno Schaefer (13) , Cecilia Sérgio (14) , Artur Serrano , Manuela Sim-Sim (15) , P. Stephenson , António Lucas Soares (16) , Dominique Strasberg (17, 6) , Alain Vanderporten , Virgilio Vieira , Rosalina Gabriel (18)

1 cE3c - Centre for Ecology - Evolution and Environmental Changes
2 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
3 Department of Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography
4 University of Oxford
5 BIO - School of Biological Sciences
6 UMR PVBMT - Peuplements végétaux et bioagresseurs en milieu tropical
7 Departamento de Biogeografia y Cambio Global
8 Department of Biogeography and Global Change
9 IBZ - Institute for Integrative Biology [Zürich]
10 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
11 University of the Azores
12 Centre for Ecology - Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) - Faculdade de Ciências
13 Plant Biodiversity Research
14 ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon
15 Faculdade de Ciências [Lisboa]
16 INESC TEC - Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science [Porto]
17 UR - Université de La Réunion
18 Universidade dos Açores

Islands harbour evolutionary and ecologically unique biota, which are currently disproportionately threatened by a multitude of anthropogenic factors, including habitat loss, invasive species and climate change. Native forests on oceanic islands are important refugia for endemic species, many of which are rare and highly threatened. Long-term monitoring schemes for those biota and ecosystems are urgently needed: (i) to provide quantitative baselines for detecting changes within island ecosystems, (ii) to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management actions, and (iii) to identify general ecological patterns and processes using multiple island systems as repeated ‘natural experiments’. In this contribution, we call for a Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS) for monitoring the remaining native island forests, using bryophytes, vascular plants, selected groups of arthropods and vertebrates as model taxa. As a basis for the GIMS, we also present new, optimized monitoring protocols for bryophytes and arthropods that were developed based on former standardized inventory protocols. Effective inventorying and monitoring of native island forests will require: (i) permanent plots covering diverse ecological gradients (e.g. elevation, age of terrain, anthropogenic disturbance); (ii) a multiple-taxa approach that is based on standardized and replicable protocols; (iii) a common set of indicator taxa and community properties that are indicative of native island forests’ welfare, building on, and harmonized with existing sampling and monitoring efforts; (iv) capacity building and training of local researchers, collaboration and continuous dialogue with local stakeholders; and (v) long-term commitment by funding agencies to maintain a global network of native island forest monitoring plots.

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Ingénierie de l'environnement; Ecosystèmes

Paulo Alexandre Vieira Borges, Pedro Cardoso, Holger Kreft, Robert J. Whittaker, Simone Fattorini, et al.. Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS): a proposal for the long-term coordinated survey and monitoring of native island forest biota. Biodiversity and Conservation, 2018, 27 (10), pp.2567 - 2586. ⟨10.1007/s10531-018-1553-7⟩. ⟨hal-01836679⟩