Maximizing Marine Benefits Through Island Conservation

Applying Ridge-to-Reef Understanding to Maximize Cobenefits of Island Interventions.

Since islands and adjacent marine habitats are connected, the removal of terrestrial invasive mammals can affect the sea. Therefore, where one or more mediating properties favour land-sea linkages, invasive mammal eradication, biosecurity to prevent reinvasion, and restoration of native flora and fauna on islands can be important nature-based tools in monitoring efforts that document changes in the terrestrial island ecosystem.

A unique opportunity exists to coordinate monitoring around restoration efforts, including systematic data collection from the land and the sea. As consistent collections of data describing both land and sea emerge, the importance of the mediating factors presented here can be tested.

As systematic data on land and sea build further, the proposed metrics describing important factors mediating the strength of land-sea connectivity can be modified to increase predictive power, with the potential to reveal new mediating factors or perhaps novel combinations of factors that hold particular significance (e.g., through interactive effects).

Presenting the state of under-standing regarding factors known to maximize the strength of land-sea connectivity is in no way the terminus of scientific contribution to conservation action, but instead, given sustained investment in monitoring and coordination across restoration projects, this effort is a step in the iterative path of applied science informing critical conservation action.