Bird-Eating Trees: Seychelles's Cousin Island, all of 27 hectares, has been on the forefront of conservation projects by scientists around the world for a number of years. Until the 1970's Cousin Island had been largely converted to a coconut plantation. This meant the removal of most indigenous vegetation which had long-lasting impacts on the island. Forty years down-the-line, Nature Seychelles has done much work to restore the island back to its original state. However, it can take hundreds of years for the forest reach maturity. Pisonia, the dominant tree species on the island, is indigenous to the island but its current abundance is much higher than it would have been in a climax forest. This is because Pisonia is a pioneer species, a plant that takes over disturbed areas, like recovering coconut plantations and then gives way to other species, ultimately leading to climax forest with mixed species. Last year, research on Cousin Island highlighted the fact that Pisonia is having a significant negative impact on the seabird populations of the island. This is because the tree produces very sticky fruits which get stuck in the sea birds' feathers and without human assistance this usually leads to their death. Seabird populations worldwide are currently under massive pressure for a number of reasons so Nature Seychelles has taken the decision to set up a research project, which will investigate the impacts of removing the Pisonia trees in research blocks and replacing them with other indigenous trees. This will hopefully decrease the number of birds dying from being caught in Pisonia seeds while increasing the biodiversity of the forest. Wayne Meyer, a Nature Conservator from South Africa, has been employed by Nature Seychelles to conduct the project.
Негізгі бет Pisonia - Bird Eating Trees.mp4
Пікірлер: 9