Posted: April 11th, 2015

Peer Response

I think you made a really valid, yet typically overlooked point in the invasiveness of rats on Easter Island. We keep hearing about how rats might have been the reason for the downfall of this civilization and I think it is overlooked because we do not believe that something so small could have such a large impact. But when you think about it, invasive species of any sort can have a much larger impact than anticipated, even with plants. The introduction of invasive plant species is known to decrease the plant diversity of a given area (Qi et al. 2014). If a plant has the ability to out compete another plant and lover local plant diversity, then a living organism such as a rat could definitely have the ability to eat and even demolish the resources necessary for a group of humans to survive, essentially doing the same thing: decreasing the local and native diversity of the area. 

Qi, Shan-Shan, Zhi-Cong Dai, De-Li Zhai, Si-Chong Chen, Chun-Can Si, Ping Huang, Rui-Ping Wang, Qiong-Xin Zhong, Dao-Lin Du. 2014. Curvilinear Effects of Invasive Plants on Plant Diversity: Plant Community Invaded by Sphagneticola trilobata. PLOS One: 1-16.