Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean
Islands can be powerful demonstrations of how destructive invasive species can be on endemic faunas and insular ecologies. Oceanic islands in the eastern Indian Ocean have suffered dramatically from the impact of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species, the black rat, causing the loss o...
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Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia
2022
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ftedithcowan:oai:ro.ecu.edu.au:ecuworks2022-2026-1254 2023-05-15T18:05:23+02:00 Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean Thomson, Vicki A A. Wiewel, Andrew S. Palmer, Russell Hamilton, Neil Algar, Dave Pink, Caitlyn Mills, Harriet Aplin, Ken P. Clark, Geoffrey Anderson, Atholl Herrera, Michael B. Myers, Steven Bertozzi, Terry Piper, Philip J. Suzuki, Hitoshi Donnellan, Steve 2022-01-27T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/254 https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=ecuworks2022-2026 unknown Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/254 https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=ecuworks2022-2026 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Research outputs 2022 to 2026 Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) Cocos (Keeling Islands) colonization and extinction cytochrome b hybridisation RAD-seq Rattus rattus Animal Sciences Life Sciences text 2022 ftedithcowan 2022-11-19T23:45:15Z Islands can be powerful demonstrations of how destructive invasive species can be on endemic faunas and insular ecologies. Oceanic islands in the eastern Indian Ocean have suffered dramatically from the impact of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species, the black rat, causing the loss of endemic terrestrial mammals and ongoing threats to ground-nesting birds. We use molecular genetic methods on both ancient and modern samples to establish the origins and minimum invasion frequencies of black rats on Christmas Island and the Cocos-Keeling Islands. We find that each island group had multiple incursions of black rats from diverse geographic and phylogenetic sources. Furthermore, contemporary black rat populations on these islands are highly admixed to the point of potentially obscuring their geographic sources. These hybridisation events between black rat taxa also pose potential dangers to human populations on the islands from novel disease risks. Threats of ongoing introductions from yet additional geographic sources is highlighted by genetic identifications of black rats found on ships, which provides insight into how recent ship-borne human smuggling activity to Christmas Island can negatively impact its endemic species. Text Rattus rattus Edith Cowan University (ECU, Australia): Research Online Indian |
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Edith Cowan University (ECU, Australia): Research Online |
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ftedithcowan |
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unknown |
topic |
Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) Cocos (Keeling Islands) colonization and extinction cytochrome b hybridisation RAD-seq Rattus rattus Animal Sciences Life Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) Cocos (Keeling Islands) colonization and extinction cytochrome b hybridisation RAD-seq Rattus rattus Animal Sciences Life Sciences Thomson, Vicki A A. Wiewel, Andrew S. Palmer, Russell Hamilton, Neil Algar, Dave Pink, Caitlyn Mills, Harriet Aplin, Ken P. Clark, Geoffrey Anderson, Atholl Herrera, Michael B. Myers, Steven Bertozzi, Terry Piper, Philip J. Suzuki, Hitoshi Donnellan, Steve Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean |
topic_facet |
Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) Cocos (Keeling Islands) colonization and extinction cytochrome b hybridisation RAD-seq Rattus rattus Animal Sciences Life Sciences |
description |
Islands can be powerful demonstrations of how destructive invasive species can be on endemic faunas and insular ecologies. Oceanic islands in the eastern Indian Ocean have suffered dramatically from the impact of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species, the black rat, causing the loss of endemic terrestrial mammals and ongoing threats to ground-nesting birds. We use molecular genetic methods on both ancient and modern samples to establish the origins and minimum invasion frequencies of black rats on Christmas Island and the Cocos-Keeling Islands. We find that each island group had multiple incursions of black rats from diverse geographic and phylogenetic sources. Furthermore, contemporary black rat populations on these islands are highly admixed to the point of potentially obscuring their geographic sources. These hybridisation events between black rat taxa also pose potential dangers to human populations on the islands from novel disease risks. Threats of ongoing introductions from yet additional geographic sources is highlighted by genetic identifications of black rats found on ships, which provides insight into how recent ship-borne human smuggling activity to Christmas Island can negatively impact its endemic species. |
format |
Text |
author |
Thomson, Vicki A A. Wiewel, Andrew S. Palmer, Russell Hamilton, Neil Algar, Dave Pink, Caitlyn Mills, Harriet Aplin, Ken P. Clark, Geoffrey Anderson, Atholl Herrera, Michael B. Myers, Steven Bertozzi, Terry Piper, Philip J. Suzuki, Hitoshi Donnellan, Steve |
author_facet |
Thomson, Vicki A A. Wiewel, Andrew S. Palmer, Russell Hamilton, Neil Algar, Dave Pink, Caitlyn Mills, Harriet Aplin, Ken P. Clark, Geoffrey Anderson, Atholl Herrera, Michael B. Myers, Steven Bertozzi, Terry Piper, Philip J. Suzuki, Hitoshi Donnellan, Steve |
author_sort |
Thomson, Vicki A A. |
title |
Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean |
title_short |
Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean |
title_full |
Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern Indian Ocean |
title_sort |
genetic insights into the introduction history of black rats into the eastern indian ocean |
publisher |
Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/254 https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=ecuworks2022-2026 |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Research outputs 2022 to 2026 |
op_relation |
https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/254 https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=ecuworks2022-2026 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766176846179729408 |