Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Detecting the initial impact of humans and introduced species on island environments in Remote Oceania using palaeoecology

  • Invasive Rodents on Islands
  • Published:
Biological Invasions Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The isolated archipelagos of Remote Oceania provide useful microcosms for understanding the impacts of initial human colonization. Palaeoecological data from most islands reveal catastrophic transformations, with losses of many species through over-hunting, deforestation and the introduction of novel mammalian predators, the most ubiquitous and devastating being commensal rats. Two case studies from the Austral Islands and New Zealand demonstrate the potential of direct human proxies from palaeoecological archives to detect initial human impacts on islands. We show how pollen from introduced crop plants, and buried seeds with gnaw marks from the introduced Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) provide a reliable means of detecting initial human colonization and highlight the downstream ecological consequences of agriculture and rat introduction on previously uninhabited pristine island ecosystems. Previous studies have relied on indirect signals of human arrival based on charcoal and associated vegetation changes, the causes of which are often more difficult to interpret with certainty.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson A (1989) Prodigious birds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson A (1991) The chronology of colonization in New Zealand. Antiquity 65:767–795

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson A (1994) Paleoenvironmental evidence of island colonization: a response. Antiquity 68:845–847

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson A (1995) Current approaches in east Polynesian colonization research. J Polyn Soc 104:110–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson A (2002) Faunal collapse, landscape change and settlement history in Remote Oceania. World Archaeol 33:375–390

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson A (2003) Entering unchartered waters: models of initial colonization in Polynesia. In: Rockman M, Steele J (eds) Colonization of unfamiliar landscapes. Routledge, London, pp 169–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS, Ward JV (1993) Environmental change and prehistoric Polynesian settlement in Hawai’i. Asian Perspect 32:205–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS, Ward JV (1997) The Maunawili core: prehistoric inland expansion of settlement and agriculture, Oahu, Hawaii. Hawaii Archaeol 6:37–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Athens JS, Tuggle HD, Ward JV, Welch DJ (2002) Avifaunal extinctions, vegetation change, and Polynesian impacts in prehistoric Hawa’i. Archaeol in Ocean 37:57–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson IAE, Towns DR (2005) Kiore, Pacific rat. In: King CM (ed) Handbook of New Zealand mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 159–173

    Google Scholar 

  • Behre KE (ed) (1986) Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams. A.A. Balkema, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Bollt R (2005) Peva: the Archaeology of a Valley on Rurutu, Austral Islands, East Polynesia. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA

  • Brook FJ (2000) Prehistoric predation of the landsnail Placostylus ambagiosus Suter (Stylommatophora: Bulimulidae), and evidence for the timing of establishment of rats in northernmost New Zealand. J R Soc NZ 30:227–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Burney DA (1999) Rates, patterns, and processes of landscape transformation and extinction in Madagascar. In: MacPhee RDE (ed) Extinctions in near time: causes, contexts, and consequences. Plenum/Kluwer, New York, pp 145–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Burney DA, James HF, Pigott Burney L, Olson SL, Kikuchi W, Wagner WL, Burney M, McCloskey D, Kikuchi D, Grady FV, Gage RII, Nishek R (2001) Fossil evidence for a diverse biota from Kaua’i and its transformation since human arrival. Ecol Monogr 71:615–641

    Google Scholar 

  • Bussell MR (1988) Mid and late Holocene pollen diagrams and Polynesian deforestation, Wanganui district, New Zealand. NZ J Bot 26:431–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell DJ (1978) The effects of rats on vegetation. In: Dingwall PR, Atkinson IAE, Hay C (eds) The ecology and control of rodents in New Zealand nature reserves, vol 4. Department of Lands and Survey Information Series, Wellington, pp 99–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell DJ (2002) Changes in numbers of woody plant seedlings on Kapiti Island after rat eradication. Sci Conserv 193:1–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell DJ, Atkinson IAE (2002) Depression of tree recruitment by the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans Peale) on New Zealand’s northern offshore islands. Biol Conserv 107:19–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colinvaux PA, Schofield EK (1976) Historical ecology in the Galapagos Islands I. A Holocene pollen record from El Junco Lake, Isla San Cristobal. J Ecol 64:989–1012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies JR (1961) The history of the Tahitian Mission 1799–1830. Hakluyt Society, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Day K (2001) Māori woodcarving of the Taranaki Region. Reed, Auckland

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson WR (2001) Paleoshoreline record of relative Holocene sea levels on Pacific islands. Earth Sci Rev 55:191–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dieffenbach E (1843) Travels in New Zealand, vol 1. John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Eddowes M (2004) Etude archéologique de l’île de Rimatara (Archipel des Australes). Dossier d’archéologie Polynésienne, vol 3. Ministère de la culture de Polynésie française, Service de la culture et du patrimoine, Tahiti

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis WR (1831) Polynesian researches, during a residence of nearly six years in the South Sea Islands. Fisher and Jackson, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellison J (1994) Paleo-lake and swamp stratigraphic records of Holocene vegetation and sea-level changes, Mangaia, Cook Islands. Pac Sci 48:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Empson L, Flenley J, Sheppard P (2002) A dated pollen record of vegetation change on Mayor Island (Tuhua) throughout the last 3000 years. Glob Plan Chang 33:329–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erickson TA, Puttock CF (2006) Hawaii wetland field guide. Bess Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Fall PL (2005) Vegetation change in the coastal-lowland rainforest at Avai’o’vuna Swamp, Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga. Quat Res 61:451–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flenley JR (1979) Stratigraphic evidence for environmental change on Easter Island. Asian Perspect 22:33–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Flenley JR (1994) Pollen in Polynesia: the use of palynology to detect human activity in the Pacific Islands. In: Hather J (ed) Tropical archaeobotany: applications and new developments. Routledge, London, pp 202–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Flenley JR, King SM (1984) Late quaternary pollen records from Easter Island. Nature 307:47–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flenley JR, King SM, Jackson J, Chew C (1991) The late quaternary vegetational and climatic history of Easter Island. J Quat Sci 6:85–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green RC (1991) Near and Remote Oceania: disestablishing Melanesia in culture history. In: Pawley A (ed) Man and a half: essays in Pacific anthropology and ethnobiology in honour of Ralph Bulmer. The Polynesian Society, Auckland, pp 491–502

    Google Scholar 

  • Haberle S (1994) Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams: problems and prospects for late quaternary palynology in New Guinea. In: Hather J (ed) Tropical archaeobotany: applications and new developments. Routledge, London, pp 172–201

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham TFG, Anderson A, Jacomb C (1999) Dating the first New Zealanders: the chronology of Wairau Bar. Antiquity 73:420–427

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogg AG, Higham TFG, Lowe DJ, Palmer JG, Reimer PJ, Newnham RM (2003) A wiggle-match date for Polynesian settlement of New Zealand. Antiquity 77:116–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt TL (2007) Rethinking Easter Island’s ecological catastrophe. J Archaeol Sci 34:485–502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt TL, Lipo CP (2006) Late colonization of Easter Island. Science 311:1603–1606

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • James HF (1995) Prehistoric extinctions and ecological changes on oceanic islands. In: Vitousek PM, Loope LL, Adsersen H (eds) Islands-biodiversity and ecosystem function. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp 88–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns DA (2001) The conservation of wetland archaeological sites in New Zealand/Aotearoa. In: Purdy B (ed) Enduring records: the environmental and cultural heritage of wetlands. Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp 246–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Juggins S (2005) C2 Data Analysis. University of Newcastle, Newcastle

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennett D, Anderson A, Prebble M, Conte E, Southon J (2006) Prehistoric human impacts on Rapa, French Polynesia. Antiquity 80:340–354

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (1996) Late holocene human-induced modifications to a Central Polynesian island ecosystem. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:5296–5300

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (1997) Microcosmic histories—island perspectives on global change. Am Anthropol 99:30–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (2000) On the road of the winds. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV, Ellison J (1994) Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote oceanic islands. Antiquity 259:310–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV, Kahn J (2007) Advances in Polynesian prehistory: a review and assessment of the past decade (1993–2004). J Archaeol Res 15:191–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV, Steadman DW, Butler VL, Hather J, Weisler MI (1995) Prehistory and human ecology in Eastern Polynesia: excavations at Tangatatau Rockshelter, Mangaia, Cook Islands. Archaeol in Ocean 30:47–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamont F (1990) A 6,000 year pollen record from Mangaia, Cook Islands, South Pacific: evidence for early human impact. Unpublished BSc Honours Thesis, University of Hull, Hull, UK

  • Leach H, Stowe C (2005) Oceanic arboriculture at the margins—the case of the karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus) in Aotearoa. J Polyn Soc 114:7–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Macphail MK, McQueen DR (1983) The value of New Zealand pollen and spores as indicators of Cenozoic vegetation and climates. Tuatara 26:37–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Maloney BK (1994) The prospects and problems of using palynology to trace the origins of tropical agriculture: the case of southeast Asia. In: Hather J (ed) Tropical archaeobotany: applications and new developments. Routledge, London, pp 139–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann D, Edwards J, Chase J, Beck W, Reanier R, Mass M, Finney B, Loret J (2008) Drought, vegetation change, and human history on Rapa Nui (Isla de Pascua, Easter Island). Quat Res 69:16–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin PS, Steadman DW (1999) Prehistoric extinctions on islands and continents. In: MacPhee RDE (ed) Extinctions in near time. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, pp 17–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey JE (1979) The diatoms of contemporary and ancient sediments from Lake Waiau, Hawaii, and their geochemical environment. Rev Paleobot Palynol 27:77–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews HJ (1905) Tree culture in New Zealand. Government Printer, Wellington

    Google Scholar 

  • Matisoo-Smith E, Roberts K, Welikala N, Tannock G, Chester P, Feek D, Flenley J (2008) Recovery of DNA and pollen from New Zealand lake sediments. Quat Int 184:139–149. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.09.013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McConkey KR, Drake DR, Meehan HJ, Parsons N (2003) Husking stations provide evidence of seed predation by introduced rodents in Tongan rain forests. Biol Conserv 109:221–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCormac FG, Hogg AG, Blackwell PG, Buck CE, Higham TFG, Reimer PJ (2004) SHCal04 Southern Hemisphere calibration 0–1000 cal BP. Radiocarbon 46:1087–1092

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McGlone MS (1988) New Zealand. In: Huntley B, Webb TIII (eds) Handbook of vegetation science vol 7: vegetation history. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Amsterdam, pp 558–599

    Google Scholar 

  • McGlone MS, Wilmshurst JM (1999) Dating intial Maori environmental impact in New Zealand. Quat Int 59:5–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGlone MS, Neall VE, Clarkson BD (1988) The effect of recent volcanic events and climatic changes on the vegetation of Mt Egmont (Mt Taranaki), New Zealand. NZ J Bot 26:123–144

    Google Scholar 

  • McGlone MS, Wilmshurst JM, Leach H (2005) The ecology and history of bracken (Pteridium esculentum) in New Zealand. NZ J Ecol 29:165–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer J-Y, Florence J, Butaud J-F (2004) Rapport de mission de l’expédition scientifique à Rimatara (Australes) du 23 Octobre au 8 novembre 2004. Délégation à la Recherche et Insitut Louis Malardé, Papeete

    Google Scholar 

  • Molloy BPJ (1990) The origin, relationships, and use of karaka or kopi (Corynocarpus laevigatus). N.Z. In: Harris W, Kapoor P (eds) Nga Mahi Maori o te Wao Nui a Tane: contributions to an international workshop on Ethnobotany, te Rehua Marae, Christchurch, New Zealand. Botany Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Christchurch, NZ pp 48–53

  • Moore PD, Webb JA, Collinson ME (1991) Pollen analysis. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Neall VE (1982) Landforms of Taranaki and Wanganui lowlands. In: Soons JM, Selby MJ (eds) Landforms of New Zealand. Longman Paul, Auckland, pp 193–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogden J, Basher L, McGlone MS (1998) Fire, forest regeneration and links with early human habitation: evidence from New Zealand. Ann Bot 81:687–696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes A (1997) Environmental change and the impact of Polynesian colonization: sedimentary records from Central Polynesia. In: Kirch PV, Hunt TL (eds) Historical ecology in the Pacific Islands. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 166–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips C, Johns D, Allen H (2002) Why did Maori bury artefacts in the wetlands of pre-contact Aotearoa/New Zealand? J Wet Archaeol 2:39–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Porch N (2008) Invertebrates in landscape archaeology. In: David B, Thomas J (eds) Handbook of landscape archaeology. World Archaeological Congress, Research Handbook Series. Left Coast Press

  • Prebble M, Dowe JL (2008) The late Quaternary decline and extinction of palms on oceanic Pacific islands. Quat Sci Rev 27:2546–2567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selling OH (1948) Studies in Hawaiian pollen statistics Pt III. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith IWG (1989) Maori impact on the marine megafauna: pre-European distribution of New Zealand sea mammals. In: Sutton DG (ed) Saying so doesn’t make it so: papers in honour of B. Foss Leach. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph, Auckland, pp 76–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Solem A (1990) How many Hawaiian land snail species are left? And what can we do for them? Bish Mus Occ Pub 30:129–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Steadman DW (1989) Extinction of birds in eastern Polynesia: a review of the record, and comparisons with other Pacific Island groups. J Archaeol Sci 16:177–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steadman DW (1991) Extinct and extirpated birds from Aitutaki and Atiu, southern Cook Islands. Pac Sci 45:325–347

    Google Scholar 

  • Steadman DW (1995) Prehistoric extinctions of Pacific island birds: biodiversity meets zooarchaeology. Science 267:1123–1131

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steadman DW (2006) Extinction and biogeography of tropical Pacific birds. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Stowe C (2003) The ecology and ethnobotany of karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus). Unpublished MSc Thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ

  • Stuiver M, Reimer PJ, Reimer RW (2005) CALIB 5.0. http://calib.qub.ac.uk/calib/calib.html

  • Sutton DG (1987) A paradigmatic shift in Polynesian prehistory: implications for New Zealand. NZ J Archaeol 9:135–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton DG, Flenley JR, Li X, Todd A, Butler K, Summers R, Chester PI (2008) The timing of the human discovery and colonization of New Zealand. Quat Int 184:109–121. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.09.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson CS (1981) The climate and weather of the Taranaki region. New Zealand Meteorological Service Miscellaneous Publication 115, Wellington, NZ

  • Vitousek PM (1988) Diversity and biological invasions of oceanic islands. In: Wilson EO (ed) Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington, pp 181–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM (2002) Oceanic islands as model systems for ecological studies. J Biogeogr 29:573–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker D, Singh G (1993) Earliest palynological records of human impact on the world’s vegetation. In: Chambers FM (ed) Climate change and human impact on the landscape. Chapman and Hall, London, pp 101–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter R (1996) Settlement pattern archaeology in the southern Cook Islands. J Pol Soc 105:1–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisler MI, Bollt R, Findlater A (2006) A new eastern limit of the Pacific flying fox, Pteropus tonganus (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae), in prehistoric Polynesia: a case of possible human transport and extirpation. Pac Sci 60:403–411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilmshurst JM, Higham TFG (2004) Using rat-gnawed seeds to independently date the arrival of Pacific rats and humans in New Zealand. Holocene 14:801–806

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilmshurst JM, Higham TFG, Allen H, Johns D, Phillips C (2004) Early Maori settlement impacts in northern coastal Taranaki, New Zealand. NZ J Ecol 28:167–179

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilmshurst JM, Anderson AJ, Higham TFG, Worthy TH (2008) Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 105:7676–7680

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wodzicki K, Taylor RH (1984) Distribution and status of the Polynesian rat Rattus exulans. Acta Zool Fenn 172:99–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Worthy TH, Holdaway RN (2002) The lost world of the moa, prehistoric life of New Zealand. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

MP thanks Jean-Yves Meyer and Priscille Frogier of the Délégation à la Recherche and the Institut Malarde, Papeete, Tahiti for providing support for research conducted on Rimatara. JMW thanks Tom Higham for helping sieve seeds at Waitoetoe, Ngati Mutunga for their support of the Taranaki work, and Richard Zimmerman for access to the Waitoetoe field site. We thank the organisers of the Rats, Humans and their Impacts on Islands conference for inviting us to present our work. We thank Atholl Anderson, Matt McGlone and Dave Addison for their constructive comments on the manuscript. We acknowledge financial support from the Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand, Nga Pae o te Maramatanga (University of Auckland) and the Australian Research Council.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nga Pae o te Maramatanga Fellow, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Asia Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Matiu Prebble

  2. Landcare Research, P.O. Box 40, Lincoln, 7640, New Zealand

    Janet M. Wilmshurst

Authors
  1. Matiu Prebble
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Janet M. Wilmshurst
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matiu Prebble.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Prebble, M., Wilmshurst, J.M. Detecting the initial impact of humans and introduced species on island environments in Remote Oceania using palaeoecology. Biol Invasions 11, 1529–1556 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-008-9405-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-008-9405-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation