Biology 3593B Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Prince Edward Islands, Blue Petrel, House Mouse
Document Summary
Intro: adaptation specific to environmental changes on sub-antarctic islands. Invasion: they swarm in farms and urban areas very rapidly; most people believe this is because of their rapid adaptive nature! This could have resulted from different species of mice colonizing the world as we colonized the world. Why sub-antarctic: the mice here must be living close to their physiological limits and hence likely to respond detectably to environmental stresses in ways unnecessary for animals in more temperate environment. Conservation issue with sub-antarctic mice: there are impacts on the flora: In marion island, mice remove up to 75% of all seeds heads of unicinia compacta. In kerguelen, the seeds and flowers of indigenous acena magellanica is one of the main items consumed during summer: there are impacts on the fauna (pringlephaga kergulensis): Size distribution: there are impacts on terrestrial birds (rowettia goughensis): Due to invertebrate predation (marion island, antipodes island: there are impacts on seabirds (blue petrel):
