Alien Bird Species Can Help Native Plants Move Around, Say Surprised Scientists

Evolving together as a community is not necessary for non-native species to fill critically important ecosystem roles, such as dispersing seeds — tasks originally performed by now-extinct native species on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu

by GrrlScientist for Forbes | @GrrlScientist

Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea), sometimes known to aviculturists as the Pekin Robin or as the Pekin Nightingale, is one of many non-native species that can be found on the Hawaiian Isles. Native to lowland forests of India, Bhutan, Nepal, Burma and parts of Tibet, it was introduced to Hawai‘i in 1918, and subsequently spread throughout all the islands except Lanai.
(Credit: Dibyendu Ash / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Native bird species on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu have been almost completely wiped out and replaced by a mélange of non-native birds from around the world, creating a never-before-seen type of ecosystem. As a result, the local plants now depend almost entirely on introduced species to disperse their seeds, according to a pioneering study. Previous studies reported that interactions between plants and animals are especially vulnerable to extinctions or to introduced species. But this surprising discovery highlights how ecological communities dominated by non-native species can be just as stable as native communities, with non-native species carrying out critically important ecosystem functions.

Hawai‘i is “the extinction capital of the world”

“[W]hen I first got to the island it was impressive to realize that some places that look like a tropical forest have absolutely no native species,” said community ecologist, Jeferson…