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Guadalupe Island: Lost paradise recovered? Overgrazing impact on extinction in a remote oceanic island as estimated through accumulation functions

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Abstract

Guadalupe Island, an oceanic island in the northwest of Mexico, is an outlier of the California Floristic Province that has been disturbed by introduced goats for more than a century, with dramatic effects of goats on plant communities and local species extinctions. In 2004 the island went through a successful eradication program. Since then, six previously unrecorded species have been discovered and four supposed extinct species have been found again. Quantifying the true species richness of the island at the time of eradication, to set a benchmark for the future monitoring of this large-scale natural experiment, is both a challenge and a necessity. For this purpose, we estimated (a) current and (b) accumulated historical plant species richness of the island through accumulation functions. Estimation of current species richness was based on the geographical accumulation process of species richness (80 species) obtained from sampling 110 (50 m × 2 m) transects distributed along the island in year 2004. Historical species richness was estimated through the temporal accumulation of species richness (119 species) from botanical records (1,960 specimens reviewed) between 1875 and 2000. The predicted value of historical richness (213 species) is similar to known historical records (218 species), but estimation of current richness (203 species) is significantly higher than accepted extant plant richness (187 species). Our results suggest that currently there may be more plant species living in the island than estimated through recent botanical exploration. Future monitoring of the island as it recovers will clarify this hypothesis.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Luciana Luna and Francisco Casillas for their help in the field work, to Eulogio López for his assistance in checking the herbaria, to Charlotte E. González-Abraham for her work with figures, and to an anonymous reviewer for excellent criticism and advice. We also thank Secretaría de Marina de México and GECI for the facilities during field work. We are especially indebted to the CAS, DS, SD, and UC Herbaria staff for their invaluable help. The financial support that made possible this work was provided by Instituto Nacional de Ecología, México (INE). The second author (EE) thanks the financial support of the Packard Foundation and the Pew Fellowship Program on Marine Conservation.

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Author notes

  1. Ernesto Vega

    Present address: IFEVA-Facultad de Agronomía (UBA)/CONICET, Av. San Martin 4453, (C1417DSE), Buenos Aires, Argentina

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dpto. Biología de la Conservación, CICESE, Km. 107 Carretera Tijuana – Ensenada, Código Postal 22860, A.P. 360, Ensenada, BC, Mexico

    Pedro P. Garcillán

  2. Biodiversity Research Center of the Californias, San Diego Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 121390, San Diego, CA, 92112-1390, USA

    Exequiel Ezcurra

  3. Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Av. Periférico Sur 5000, Del. Coyoacán, Mexico, 04530, DF, Mexico

    Ernesto Vega

Authors
  1. Pedro P. Garcillán
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  2. Exequiel Ezcurra
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  3. Ernesto Vega
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pedro P. Garcillán.

Appendix

Appendix

List of the 80 species found during field sampling in Guadalupe Island. Subspecies level is showed, although we used species as the taxonomic unit for our study. Among found species in the field only for Hordeum murinum have been recognized two different subspecies in Guadalupe Island (ssp. murinum and ssp. leporinum). Non-native taxa are marked with an asterisk (*).

Aizoaceae

    *Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

    *Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum

Amaranthaceae

    Atriplex barclayana

    Aphanisma blitoides

    *Atriplex semibaccata

    *Chenopodium murale

Apiaceae

    Lomatium insulare

Arecaceae

    Brahea edulis

Asteraceae

    Amblyopappus pusillus

    Ambrosia camphorata

    *Centaurea melitensis

    Deinandra greeneana

    *Hypochaeris glabra

    Logfia filaginoides

    Perityle emoryi

    Perityle incana

    *Sonchus oleraceus

    *Sonchus tenerrimus

    Uropappus lindleyi

Boraginaceae

    *Capsella bursa-pastoris

    Guillenia lasiophylla

    Harpagonella palmeri

    Lepidium oblongum

    Pectocarya linearis ssp. ferocula

    *Plagiobothrys acanthocarpus

    *Plagiobothrys collinus

    *Sisymbrium orientale

    Thysanocarpus erectus

Cactaceae

    Cylindropuntia prolifera

Campanulaceae

    Githopsis diffusa

    Triodanis biflora

Caryophyllaceae

    *Cerastium glomeratum

    *Herniaria hirsuta

    *Silene gallica ssp. capitatum

    Spergularia macrotheca

Crassulaceae

    Crassula connata

Cupressaceae

    Callitropsis guadalupensis

Fabaceae

    Lotus grandiflorus

    Lupinus niveus

    Trifolium microcephalum

    Trifolium palmeri

    Trifolium gracilentum

    Vicia hassei

    Vicia ludoviciana ssp. ludoviciana

Geraniaceae

    *Erodium cicutarium

    *Erodium brachycarpum

    *Erodium moschatum

Hydrophyllaceae

    Emmenanthe penduliflora

    Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia

    Phacelia floribunda

    Phacelia phyllomanica

Malvaceae

    *Malva parviflora

    Sphaeralcea palmeri

Papaveraceae

    Eschscholzia elegans

Plantaginaceae

    Plantago ovata

Poaceae

    *Avena barbata

    *Bromus diandrus

    *Bromus hordeaceus

    *Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens

    *Bromus trinii

    *Hordeum murinum ssp. murinum/ssp. leporinum

    *Lamarckia aurea

    Muhlenbergia microsperma

    Phalaris caroliniana

    *Schismus barbatus

    *Vulpia myuros

    Vulpia octoflora

Polemoniaceae

    Gilia nevinii

    Leptosiphon pygmaeus ssp. pygmaeus

Polygonaceae

    Pterostegia drymarioides

Portulacaceae

    Calandrinia ciliata

    Calandrinia maritima

    Claytonia perfoliata ssp. mexicana

Resedaceae

    Oligomeris linifolia

Rosaceae

    Aphanes occidentalis

Rubiaceae

    *Galium aparine

Solanaceae

    Lycium californicum

    *Nicotiana glauca

Themidaeceae

    Dichelostemma capitatum ssp. cinerea

Urticaceae

    Parietaria hespera

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Garcillán, P.P., Ezcurra, E. & Vega, E. Guadalupe Island: Lost paradise recovered? Overgrazing impact on extinction in a remote oceanic island as estimated through accumulation functions. Biodivers Conserv 17, 1613–1625 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-008-9370-z

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