Publication Date:
2008-11-22
Description:
Paleoecological evidence from the past 8000 years in the Galapagos Islands shows that six presumed introduced or doubtfully native species (Ageratum conyzoides, Borreria laevis/Diodia radula-type, Brickellia diffusa, Cuphea carthagenensis, Hibiscus diversifolius, and Ranunculus flagelliformis) are in fact native to the archipelago. Fossil pollen and macrofossils from four sites in the highlands of Santa Cruz Island reveal that all were present thousands of years before the advent of human impact, refuting their classification as introduced species. These findings have substantial implications not only for conservation in Galapagos but for the management of introduced species and pantropical weeds in general.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉van Leeuwen, Jacqueline F N -- Froyd, Cynthia A -- van der Knaap, W O -- Coffey, Emily E -- Tye, Alan -- Willis, Katherine J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Nov 21;322(5905):1206. doi: 10.1126/science.1163454.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19023075" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Angiosperms
;
*Conservation of Natural Resources
;
Ecology/methods
;
Ecosystem
;
Ecuador
;
*Fossils
;
Humans
;
*Pollen
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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