Eradicating invasive predators from islands can result in substantial recovery of seabirds, but the mechanisms that drive population changes remain poorly understood. Meta‐analyses have recently revealed that immigration is surprisingly important to the recovery of philopatric seabirds, but it is not known whether dispersal and philopatry interact predictably to determine rates of population growth and changes of distribution. We used whole‐island surveys and long‐term monitoring plots to study the abundance, distribution, and trends of 4 burrowing seabird species on Macquarie Island, Australia, to examine the legacy impacts of invasive species and ongoing responses to the world's largest eradication of multiple species of vertebrates. Wekas (Gallirallus australis) were eradicated in 1988; cats (Felis catus) in 2001; and rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), black rats (Rattus rattus), and mice (Mus mus) in 2011–2014. We compared surveys from 1976–1979 and 2017–2018 and monitoring from the 1990s and 2000s onward. Antarctic prions (Pachyptila desolata) and white‐headed petrels (Pterodroma lessonii) increased ∼1% per year. Blue petrels (Halobaena caerulea) and gray petrels (Procellaria cinerea) recolonized following extirpation from the main island in the 1900s but remained spatially and numerically rare in 2018. However, they increased rapidly at 14% and 10% per year, respectively, since cat eradication in 2001. Blue and gray petrel recolonization occurred on steep, dry, west‐facing slopes close to ridgelines at low elevation (i.e., high‐quality petrel habitat). They overlapped <5% with the distribution of Antarctic prion and white‐headed petrels which occurred in suboptimal shallow, wet, east‐facing slopes at high elevation. We inferred that the speed of population growth of recolonizing species was related to their numerically smaller starting size compared with the established species and was driven by immigration and selection of ideal habitat.

中文翻译：

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世界上最大规模的多食肉动物消灭行动后，现存和灭绝的海鸟的恢复模式

消灭岛屿上的入侵掠食者可以使海鸟大量恢复，但推动种群变化的机制仍然知之甚少。最近的荟萃分析表明，移民对于亲缘海鸟的恢复非常重要，但尚不清楚扩散和亲缘海鸟是否可预测地相互作用，从而决定种群增长率和分布变化。我们利用全岛调查和长期监测图来研究澳大利亚麦觉理岛上 4 种穴居海鸟的丰度、分布和趋势，以研究入侵物种的遗留影响以及对全球最大规模的多种海鸟根除行动的持续响应。脊椎动物的种类。维卡斯（澳洲鸡）于1988年被根除；猫 （猫科动物) 2001 年；和兔子（兔兔）、黑鼠（黄鼠）和小鼠（小家鼠）2011-2014 年。我们比较了 1976-1979 年和 2017-2018 年的调查以及 1990 年代和 2000 年代以后的监测。南极朊病毒（荒凉厚叶蜂）和白头海燕（莱氏翼龙）每年增加约1%。蓝色海燕 (蓝海藻）和灰海燕（灰原菌）在 1900 年代从主岛灭绝后重新定居，但 2018 年在空间和数量上仍然很少见。不过，自 2001 年消灭猫以来，它们以每年 14% 和 10% 的速度快速增长。蓝色和灰色海燕重新定居发生在陡峭的海域靠近山脊线的干燥、朝西的低海拔斜坡（即优质海燕栖息地）。它们与南极朊病毒和白头海燕的分布重叠<5%，这些分布发生在次优的浅层、潮湿、高海拔的朝东斜坡上。我们推断，重新殖民物种的种群增长速度与其相比于已建立物种在数量上较小的起始规模有关，并且是由移民和理想栖息地的选择驱动的。