In this analysis we documented terrestrial species and subspecies that occur only on islands and seabirds that breed AZD0530 cost primarily or exclusively on islands. We considered a species or subspecies an island endemic if it bred on ≤5 islands. We counted an island endemic or seabird species or subspecies as “protected from extinction” if it occurred on an island where a potentially damaging Ganetespib order invasive mammal (either via direct or indirect impacts) was eradicated. Endemic vertebrates and seabirds were considered protected by the eradication of invasive herbivores, omnivores and carnivores.

Endemic plants were considered protected by the eradication of invasive herbivores and omnivores, but not of invasive carnivores. Our logic for assigning impacts of invasive vertebrates on island species is as follows. Invasive herbivores directly impact plants (Ali 2004) and indirectly impact native species dependent on vegetation and soil (Donlan et al. 2007). Invasive omnivores directly impact plants and animals via herbivory

and predation. They indirectly impact animals that feed on plants via herbivory. Invasive herbivores and omnivores impact seabirds directly by trampling and competition for burrows, or indirectly via grazing of plants used GSK1120212 solubility dmso for nesting or compaction and erosion of soil used for nesting holes. Invasive omnivores also impact seabirds directly through predation (Howell and Webb 1989). Invasive carnivores directly impact native animals via predation. Although they can indirectly impact native plants via disruption of seed dispersal (Kaiser-Bunbury et al. 2010), disturbance processes (Pinter and Vestal 2005), biogeochemical cycles (Hannon et al. 2001), and seabird-derived nutrient subsidies

(Croll et al. 2005), these impacts are less well documented for many project islands and we did not Osimertinib cell line include them in this analysis. We did not attempt to assess the magnitude of benefit to a given island endemic or seabird species/subspecies. These benefits ranged from minor (when only a small portion of the population received benefit) to saved from extinction (when the entire species/subspecies was contained on the island). For example, global populations of boobies, Sula spp., likely received only a minor benefit from invasive Rattus rattus eradication (Jones et al. 2008), while seven single-island endemic plant species thought to be globally extinct returned from the seed bank following an invasive herbivore eradication on Guadalupe Island (Aguirre-Munoz et al. 2008; Donlan et al. 2002; Garcillan et al. 2008). Some of Island Conservation’s project islands contain endemic invertebrates that likely benefited from invasive animal eradications (Otte and Cowper 2007; Weissman et al. 1980). However, we were unable to compile a sufficiently uniform dataset on invertebrate fauna to conduct a meaningful analysis.