Biodiversity Conservation in Pacific Island Ecosystems

Pacific islands harbour some of the world’s most distinctive flora and fauna, characterised by exceptionally high rates of endemism and a mosaic of specialised habitats. From ultramafic outcrops and montane cloud forests to coastal lava flow woodlands, these ecosystems support thousands of narrow-range species that evolved in isolation. At the same time, they are acutely vulnerable to invasive alien organisms, habitat loss, mining and climate-driven sea-level rise. Contemporary conservation science in the region combines fine-scale mapping, ecological modelling, traditional ecological knowledge and community-based management to identify priority areas, forecast species responses to environmental change and guide restoration. Efforts range from delimiting microrefugia for endemic plants through high-resolution species distribution models to deploying criteria-based frameworks that balance biodiversity outcomes with cultural and socioeconomic values. The global significance of Pacific island conservation lies not only in safeguarding unique evolutionary lineages, but also in informing resilience strategies for insular and other highly fragmented systems under intensifying anthropogenic pressure.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Biodiversity Conservation in Pacific Island Ecosystems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in biodiversity conservation in pacific island ecosystems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Endemism: The occurrence of species that are native to and restricted within a specific geographic area.

Species distribution model (SDM): A statistical or machine-learning approach to predict the geographic distribution of species based on environmental variables and occurrence data.

Ultramafic substrate: Soil derived from ultramafic rocks, typically rich in heavy metals and low in essential nutrients, supporting specialised plant communities.

Invasive alien species: Non-native organisms that establish and spread in a new region, often causing ecological or economic harm.

Conservation prioritisation: The process of ranking species or sites for protection based on criteria such as endemism, threat level and irreplaceability.

References

1. High-resolution topographic variables accurately predict the distribution of rare plant species for conservation area selection in a narrow-endemism hotspot in New Caledonia. Biodiversity and Conservation (2021).
2. Mining rare Earth elements: Identifying the plant species most threatened by ore extraction in an insular hotspot. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2022).
3. Last stand: Application of a criteria-based framework to inform conservation of a critically threatened tropical lowland forest fragment. Global Ecology and Conservation (2024).