Editing Island (section)

== Threats to islands ==
[[File:Calle Loíza in San Juan, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.jpg|alt=A normal city street in Puerto Rico that is completely flooded in a few feet of water.|thumb|San Juan, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Climate change is expected to cause more frequent inland flooding on islands.]]{{Further|Effects of climate change on small island countries}}
[[Climate change]] threatens human development on islands due to [[sea level rise]], more dangerous [[tropical cyclones]], [[coral bleaching]], and an increase in [[invasive species]].<ref name=":16">{{Citation |title=Small Islands |date=2023 |work=Climate Change 2022 – Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Working Group II Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |pages=2043–2122 |editor-last=Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/climate-change-2022-impacts-adaptation-and-vulnerability/small-islands/73897C6908F3FF464B0555DC3C63DB98 |access-date=July 9, 2024 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781009325844.017 |isbn=978-1-009-32583-7}}</ref> For example, in 2017 [[Hurricane Maria]] caused a loss of almost all the infrastructure in Dominica. Sea level rise and other climate changes can reduce freshwater reserves, resulting in [[droughts]].<ref name=":16" /> These risks are expected to decrease the habitability of islands, especially small ones. Beyond risks to human life, plant and animal life are threatened. It has been estimated that almost 50 percent of land species threatened by [[extinction]] live on islands.<ref name=":16" /> In 2017, a detailed review of 1,288 islands found that they were home to 1,189 highly-threatened vertebrate species, which was 41 percent of the global figure.<ref name=Spatz>{{citation |author1=Spatz DR |author2=Zilliacus KM |author3=Holmes ND |author4=Butchart SHM |author5=Genovesi P |author6=Ceballos G |author7=Tershy BR |author8=Croll DA |title=Globally threatened vertebrates on islands with invasive species |journal=Science Advances |year=2017 |volume=25 |number=3 |pages=e1603080 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.1603080|pmid=29075662 |pmc=5656423 |bibcode=2017SciA....3E3080S }}</ref> Coral bleaching is expected to occur with more frequency, threatening marine ecosystems, some of which island economies are dependent on.<ref name=":16" />

Some islands that are low-lying may cease to exist given high enough amounts of sea level rise. [[Tuvalu]] received media attention for a press conference publicizing the ongoing submerging of the island country.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |last=Prete |first=Giovanni |date=January 29, 2024 |title=Tuvalu: Why Is the Small Island Nation Sinking? |url=https://earth.org/tuvalus-sinking-reality-how-climate-change-is-threatening-a-small-island-nation/ |access-date=July 9, 2024 |website=Earth.Org |language=en}}</ref> Tuvalu signed a cooperation agreement with Australia agreeing to annually allow 280 of its citizens to become [[permanent residents]] of Australia. The Marshall Islands, a country of 1,156 islands, have also been identified as a country that may be existentially threatened by rising seas.<ref name=":17" />

Increasing intensity of tropical storms also increases the distances and frequency with which invasive species may be transported to islands. Floodwaters from these storms may also wash plants further inland than they would travel on their own, introducing them to new habitats.<ref name=":23" /> [[Agriculture]] and trade also have introduced non-native life to islands. These processes result in an introduction of [[invasive species]] to ecosystems that are especially small and fragile. One example is the [[apple snail]], initially introduced to the U.S. by [[aquarium]] owners. It has since been transported by hurricanes across the [[Gulf Coast]] and neighboring islands.<ref name=":23" /> These species compete for resources with native animals, and some may grow so densely that they displace other forms of existing life.<ref name=":23" />