Using pest monitoring data to inform the location and intensity of invasive-species control in New Zealand

Abstract

Improving decision-making about where and how invasive species management is conducted requires a better understanding of spatial variation in pest abundance and the extent to which different pest control regimes reduce those abundances. We measured how the relative abundance of invasive rats and possums, indexed at 147 forest sites in northern New Zealand, varied in response to environmental variables, and to the category of pest control at the site: no control (NC), periodic possum (PP), low-intensity rat and possum (LRP), and high-intensity rat and possum (HRP). We found that climate and topography strongly influenced the rat index, while vegetation characteristics strongly influenced bot..