MASCARENE ISLANDS

HOTSPOT IN THE INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS

 RODRIGUES
MAURITIUS Smallest (104 km2)
10 mya
REUNION Largest (2512 km2) Discovered first by the
Arabs but named after
10 mya Portuguese navigator
(1865 km2) Discovered first by the Diogo Rodrigues.
Arabs then by the
Formed 7-8 mya Portuguese, who named
Arabs and was first it Santa Apolónia
named Dina Harobi
CLIMATE
• The Mascarene Islands have a tropical climate i.e. temperatures are warm
and show little seasonal variation.
• The climate is strongly influenced by the humid prevailing winds blowing
from the southeast, with annual rainfall varying from 500 mm in the driest
leeward areas to about 12 m in the wettest areas on the windward slopes of
Réunion.
• Such climate generally promotes the development of forests.
Taxonomic Number of Number of endemic Percent of endemic
Group species species species
Flowering plants 959 691 72
Ferns and allies 265 58 22
Mosses and allies 800 40–80 5–10
Nonmarine mammals 7 4 57
Reef fishes 923 42 5
Landbirds 60 51 85
Seabirds 21 3 14
Nonmarine reptiles 32 30 94
Nonmarine molluscs 200 180 90
Coleoptera 1538 979 64
• The Mascarene biota exhibits high levels of endemism in many groups of
related taxa: about three-quarters of the approximately 960 native flowering
plant spe-cies, 65% of the Coleoptera ( 1550 species), and 90% of the
nonmarine molluscs ( 200 species) are endemic
• The Mascarene Islands had the richest oceanic island reptile fauna before the
arrival of people.Even today ,Gonospira landsnails (28), Phelsuma geckos (9),
Diospyros trees (14), Dombeya trees (13), Gaertnera shrubs (14), Pandanus
screw pines (22), or daisy trees Psiadia (26).
• There are many endemic genera of plants and animals in the terrestrial biota.
For example, 32 genera of flowering plants (11% of the total number of genera)
and 89 genera of Coleoptera (14% of the total number of genera) are restricted
to the Mascarene Islands. Some of these genera provide spectacular examples
of diversification within the archipelago, such as weevils (Cratopus, 86 species),
leaf beetles (Trichostola, >25 species) and several shrubs (e.g., Badula [14
species], Heterochaenia [3 species], Trochetia [6 species]
• Nonendemic genera (numbers of species in parenthesis), for example,
Gonospira landsnails (28), Phelsuma geckos (9), Diospyros trees (14), Dombeya
• Dry lowland forests dominated by palms (Latania spp., Dictyosperma album), screw-pines
(Pandanus spp), and trees such as Terminalia bentzoe (Combretaceae).
• The ecosystem is also home to several spectacular endemic species of Hibiscus (Malvaceae).
Many species of this zone, such as Zanthoxylum spp. (Rutaceae), Obetia ficifolia (Urticaceae),
and Scolopia heterophylla (Flacourtiaceae), exhibit developmental heterophylly, with juvenile
leaves being more divided than those of adults. Such convergence may have evolved to deter
herbivory by extinct giant tortoises.
• The lowland rainforest forests have a canopy of tall trees up to 30 m high and represent the
richest plant communities of the Mascarene Islands. Characteristic plants include trees in the
plant family Sapotaceae (e.g. Mimusops spp., Labourdonnaisia spp., Sideroxylon spp.),
Hernandiaceae (Hernandia mas-carenensis), Clusiaceae (Calophyllum spp.), and Myrtaceae
(Syzygium spp., Eugenia spp., Monimiastrum spp.); shrubs in the plant family Rubiaceae
(Gaertnera spp., Chassalia spp., Bertiera spp., Coffea spp.); and numerous species of orchids (e.g.,
Angraecum spp., Bulbophyllum spp.) and ferns (e.g., Asplenium spp., Hymenophyllum spp.,
Trichomanes spp., Elaphoglossum spp.).
• Dense cloud forest ,rich in epiphytes (orchids, ferns, mosses, lichens), emergent tree ferns
(Cyathea spp.) and originally palms (Acanthophoenix rubra), but these now survive only in areas
of Réunion.
• These forests are characterized by trees such as Dombeya spp. (on Réunion only) and species in
the plant family Monimiaceae (Monimia spp., Tambourissa spp.) as canopy species, with small
• Finally, above the tree line, at elevations where frosts occur regularly in winter
(1800–2000 m), is a unique subalpine scrub dominated by shrubs in the plant
families of Ericaceae (Erica spp.), Asteraceae (Hubertia spp., Psiadia spp., Stoebe
passerinoides), and Rhamnaceae (Phylica nitida), with some notable endemic
species such as Heterochaenia rivalsii (Campanulaceae), Eriotrix commersonii
(Asteraceae), and Cynoglossum borbonicum (Boraginaceae) (average annual
rainfall 2000–6000 mm).
• The summits of the volcanoes are covered by large mineral areas with sparse
grasslands rich in endemic grasses (Poaceae, e.g., Festuca borbonica, Agrostis
salaziensis, Pennisetum caffrum) and orchids (Orchidaceae, e.g., Disa borbonica),
ericoid thickets (shrubland ecoregion) or thickets of the small tree Sophora
denudata (Fabaceae), depending on substrate texture and age.
MARINE-CORAL
REEFS
• 750 km2 of coral reef.
• Rodrigues has nearly continuous fringing reefs bounding an extensive
lagoon with deep channels, whereas Mauritius is surrounded by a dis-
continuous fringing reef and a small barrier reef.
• In contrast, Réunion has very short stretches of narrow fringing reefs
along the western and southwestern coasts only.
• The islets of the Cargados Carajos Shoals, which have a very depauperate
terrestrial biota owing to being so low-lying and swamped during
cyclones, are bound to the east by an extensive arc of fringing reef, which
accounts for 30% of the reefs of the Mascarene Islands.
• Lagoon reefs and reef flats are dominated by scleractinian corals such as
branching and tabular Acropora, Porites massives, foliaceous Montipora
and Pavona, and sand consolidated with beds of seagrass such Halophila
spp. (Hydrocharitaceae). Among coral reef fishes, wrasses (Labridae),
Casa-rea dussumieri
(Round island Boa )
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Bolyeriidae
Genus: Casarea
Gray, 1842
Species: C. dussumieri
Cratopus species
• 86 species of this weevils.
Pterodroma
baraui(baurau’s petrel)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Procellariiforme
s

Family: Procellariidae

Genus: Pterodroma

Species: P. baraui
Pseudobulweria
aterrima
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Procellariiforme
s
Family: Procellariidae

Genus: Pseudobulweria

Species: P. aterrima
Raphus cucullatus
Rodrigues solitaire
(PEZOPHAPS SOLITARIA)
THE RÉUNION
SOLITAIRE
(Threskiornis solitaries)
Badula borbonica
or bois de savon
(Myrsinaceae)
• Badula is a species-rich genus, endemic to the Mascarene
Islands.
• Here is shown a large-leaved species that forms a
medium-sized unbranched shrub in the dense cloud
forests of Réunion.
 Kingdom: Plantae
Forgesia Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
racemosa
Clade: Eudicots
• This enigmatic and beautiful species,
common in cloud forests, is in the Clade: Asterids
Escalloniaceae family. Order: Escalloniales
• Its closest known relatives live in the Family: Escalloniaceae
Andes, South America.
Genus: Forgesia
Comm. ex Juss
.
Species: F. racemosa
Phelsuma cepediana
• one of the seven surviving Mascarene species.
• Is currently the sole pollinator and seed disperser of Roussea simplex, a climbing
shrub endemic to the mountains of Mauritius that was named after Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Gekkonidae

Genus: Phelsuma
Species: P. cepediana
 Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata
Zosterops
Class: Aves
mauritianus Order: Passeriformes
Belongs to Mascarene grey white-eyes,
an anomalous group of warbler-like Family: Zosteropidae
white-eyes with no “white-eye” with
Asian affinities that appears to have Genus: Zosterops
undergone a cryptic adaptive radiation in
the Mascarenes. Species: Z. mauritianu
Also called as the Mauritius grey white s
eye.
BASIC MEASURES
In the Mascarene Islands, eradication of non indigenous predators has become a high
conservation priority to prevent further extinctions and is often a prerequisite to
ecosystem restoration work. On islets around Mauritius and Rodrigues such as Round
Island eradication programs have succeeded in clearing these islands from feral goats,
rabbits, rats, cats, and mice, although house shrews, agamid lizards, and wolf snakes
have proved harder to remove.
Removal of these predators has led to increase in numbers of native plant and animal
species living on the islets, and the now stabilized conditions on Round Island have
allowed the palm forest to recover and the unique reptiles there to thrive, and one
species, Telfair’s skink (Leiolopisma telfairii), has been reintroduced onto islands it
formerly inhabited, now again rat-free.
Réunion, where cats and rats threaten endemic petrels that breed on mountain tops,
conservation managers have to take into account possible mesopredator effects.
Areas were fenced to reduce access by introduced herbivores and regularly weeded to
control populations of nonindigenous plants. They usually showed an improvement in
natural regeneration of native plants in less than ten years, including the legendary
tam-balacoque tree (Sideroxylon grandiflorum), popularly sup-posed to be
dependent on the extinct dodo
Giant Aldabra
tortoises
(Aldabrachelys
gigantean)
• introduced (Mauritius).
• can be used as ecological analogue
seed dispersers of Syzygium
mamillatum.
• Saddle-backed tortoise (Cylindraspis
triserrata) and the domed tortoise (C.
inepta).
Methodology/Principal
Findings:
• In Mauritius, we investigated seed germination and seedling survival
patterns of the critically endangered endemic plant Syzygium mamillatum
(Myrtaceae) in relation to proximity to maternal trees.
• We successfully used giant Aldabran tortoises as ecological analogues for
extinct Mauritian frugivores.
• Effects of gut-passage were negative at the seed germination stage, but
seedlings from gut-passed seeds grew taller, had more leaves, and suffered
less damage from natural enemies than any of the other seedlings.
• It was also found that there are strong negative effects of proximity to
maternal trees on growth and survival of seedlings.
• 40 S. mamillatum fruits were fed to the three tortoises twice a week during four
weeks. A total of 320 ripe fruits from seven different S. mamillatum trees were fed
to the tortoises (mean= 46 fruits/tree, range: 20–132 fruits/tree).
• Syzygium mamillatum fruits were fed whole to the tortoises
• It was estimated that the fruits
fed to the tortoises contained a total of 685 seeds
based on the average number of 2.14 seeds per fruit [30]. Tortoise faeces were
collected daily.
• Whole S. mamillatum seeds and seed fragments, which were large enough to be
identified as such, were extracted, counted and weighed.
Graph of Gut-passage patterns of seeds and seed
fragments of Syzygium mamillatum fruits fed to
Aldabra tortoises.
(The two arrows indicate the beginning and the
end of the feeding period,respectively.)
Percentage of tortoise gut-passed seeds germinating
in relation to faeces collection week.
Numbers above the bars are the number of seeds sown in
the forest on the upper and lower plateau,
 (A) Developing fruits on the lower
,50 cm of a Syzygium
mamillatum tree
(B) Ripe fruits attached to the trunk.
Note the foremost fruit has split
open, releasing a fermented
smell.
(C) A ‘ball’ of four seeds from one
fruit with the pulp removed.
(D) Germinating seed. Note the
clear line between the two green
cotyledons.
(E) Giant Aldabra tortoise feeding
on S. mamillatum fruits.
(F) Seeds with and without the
slimy, fibrous endocarp.
(G) Seed fragments after tortoise
gut-passage. Fragments were
most often found as whole
cotyledons. Note how some
cotyledons are still green on the
side that faced the other
cotyledon, suggesting that they
did not break apart until late in
the passage.
(H) A caged patch of seeds.
(I) An experimental patch of
seedlings.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5293259_Seed_Dispersal_and_Establishment_of_Endangered_Plants_on_Oceanic_Islands_The_Janzen-Connell_Model_and_the_Use_of_Ecological_Analogues