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Human impact on the Falkland Islands environment

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Summary

A historic analysis of human-initiated influences on the Falkland Islands ecologies is presented. Ecosystems were extensively altered by the destruction of seal and penguin communities in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and by the introduction of domesticated animals and exotic plants, the proliferation of fires, and the hunting to extinction, or near extinction, of certain animals. The harsh Falklands climate has permitted only limited recovery from some of these ravages. No island ecosystems, however remote, are spared the effects of economic and political changes influencing the rest of the world.

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Author notes

  1. Patrick H. Armstrong (Senior Lecturer)

    Present address: Department of Geography at the University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Western Australia, 6009, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia

    Patrick H. Armstrong (Senior Lecturer)

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  1. Patrick H. Armstrong
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Additional information

He has published a previous article on island ecologies inThe Environmentalist (1992).

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Armstrong, P.H. Human impact on the Falkland Islands environment. Environmentalist 14, 215–231 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01907141

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