Island biogeography meets the Anthropocene: The first expedition

Many modern human activities result in environmental problems such as pollution, over-fishing and deforestation, which have a considerable impact on our natural world. The biodiversity of tropical islands within the Caribbean Region is especially affected by land-use change and the introduction of exotic species. These human activities modify island biodiversity in two ways: introduced species (initially) increase overall biodiversity, while intensified land-use threatens native and endemic species with extinction. The resulting species community shifts, however, remain unknown. For this reason, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) set up the project Island Biogeography meets the Anthropocene to study how invasive species and land-use changes affect the species communities of the Dutch Caribbean Islands. The project’s first field expedition took place in the summer of 2015.