El cerdo cimarrón (Sus scrofa, Suidae) en la Isla del Coco, Costa Rica: Escarbaduras, alteraciones al suelo y erosión
Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are of the most damaging exotic vertebrates, specially on oceanic island nativecommunities. Feral pigs inhabit Cocos Island since 1793 and there are around 400-500 individuals. In order toquantify the impacts of the feral pigs at Cocos Island, I calculated the effect of the rooting activity and its influ-ence on the natural erosion. During one year I walked, monthly, 15 km on trails estimating rooted area by tran-sect and rooting recurrence. During eight months I compared erosion rates with and without rootings. I estimat-ed the annual rooting rate between 10 and 20 % of the total island surface. The rooted area was the only meas-ured variable which correlated with the soil erosion rate. The erosion rate without rootings was 23.6 kg/ha/yearand with rootings was 200.4 kg/ha/year (P < 0.01). The disturbances provoked by the rootings were not scatteredhomogeneously through the island. The rootings, together with the natural landslides, dominate the soil distur-bance pattern at Cocos Island. This study suggests that the presence of feral pigs produces more erosion than theone that would naturally occur without feral pigs at Cocos Island.
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica.
2001
|
| Subjects: | Feral pigs, soil disturbances, rooting, erosion, erosion rates, Cocos Island, Costa Rica, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11056/23218 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|