With a personal account, you can read up to 100 articles each month for free.
Already have an account?
- Access everything in the JPASS collection
- Read the full-text of every article
- Download up to 10 article PDFs to save and keep
- Access everything in the JPASS collection
- Read the full-text of every article
- Download up to 120 article PDFs to save and keep
Tropical island ecosystems appear to be especially vulnerable to invasive species as indicated by the often high numbers and percentages of exotic species on oceanic and continental islands. Here I reexamine hypotheses offered to account for the apparently high invasibility of tropical islands and suggest a simple synthesis based on resource availability, propagule supply, and relative competitive abilities of exotic and island species. This review suggests that fundamentally two interacting processes-high net resource availability and poor ability of native species to preempt those resources-make island communities vulnerable to the establishment and spread of alien species. In addition, historically high rates of introduction have provided opportunity in the form of a diverse and abundant propagule rain of exotic species. The combination produces a scenario that is not an optimistic one for island ecosystems. It suggests that these native ecosystems on islands are particularly vulnerable to naturalizing exotics growing on their borders, and that while disturbance from a variety of causes, including pigs, fire, grazing, and natural dieback of the canopy dominants, increases the opportunities for exotic incursions, even intact forests are not immune. Unless these forests are aggressively managed and alien propagule pressure reduced, they will be highly modified by expanding exotic plant populations. Tropical islands are an effective early warning system of the impacts that successive waves of exotic species invasions may cause to isolated ecosystems. As mainland natural areas become fragmented, degraded and depauperate, they acquire many of the ecological attributes of islands, including limited habitat area, missing functional groups, declining species diversity, and disturbed habitats. A better understanding of invasions on islands may improve our attempts to protect both mainland and island ecosystems from the impacts of exotic species.
In 1914, the Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the flagship journal of the scientific publications program, was founded to contain research contributions from staff members at the Garden, graduate students of the Henry Shaw School of Botany of Washington University, and from visiting botanists associated with the Garden. Since that time, the Annals has grown to be one of the world's premiere peer-reviewed botanical journals, published quarterly, with an emphasis on systematic botany and taxonomy. Articles are accepted in English and Spanish, from botanists at the Garden and from the international botanical community.
The Missouri Botanical Garden was founded in 1859 by the successful English businessman Henry Shaw and is the oldest botanical garden in the United States. Within its 79 acres are spectacular display and demonstration gardens and rare collections of botanical, horticultural, and historical materials, as well as architecturally and historically significant buildings. Today the Garden is a major cultural institution, a designated National Historical Landmark, and a world-renowned botanical research center. The Missouri Botanical Garden Press, an integral part of the Garden's research division, has a history of over 100 years of scientific publications. Since the publication of the Trelease article in 1890, the program has grown phenomenally. It includes two quarterly scientific journals, a series of books on various aspects of botanical research, and several floras that cover botanically significant areas of the world. The Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Garden's primary scientific journal, was founded in 1914 and concentrates on systematic botany and taxonomy. The Annals is known for its traditional monographs and revisions of plant genera, as well as cutting-edge articles on molecular phylogenetics, and for its themed issues, on topics such as the origin of modern terrestrial ecosystems and recent discoveries in the plant, animal, and other kingdoms. Novon, a journal for botanical nomenclature, began in 1991 and contains papers establishing new nomenclature in vascular plants and bryophytes. The number of pages continues to grow from year to year, an indicator of the important niche in the botanical systematics community filled by this journal. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden were started in 1978 as a way of making lengthy botanical works available as well-made, stand-alone volumes. The series includes several single-topic treatises, as well as ongoing titles, such as the Moss Flora of Central America, Icones Pleurothallidinarum, Index to Plant Chromosome Numbers, and many more. MBG Press is also the proud publisher of several regional and national floras, including those of China, Mesoamerica, Nicaragua, the Venezuelan Guayana, Panama, and more. For a full listing, and for more information on Research at the Missouri Botanical Garden, see www.mobot.org.
This item is part of a JSTOR Collection.
For terms and use, please refer to our
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
© 2003 Missouri Botanical Garden Press