Ecosystem management on Amami Island, considering community processes.

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Amami-oshima Island locates about 300km south-west from Kyushu Is., and north-eastern edge of Oriental Region. There are many endemic species, such as Pentalagus furnessi, Garrulus Iidthi, Zoothera major, and Babina subaspera. In 1990's alien Herpestes javanicus expanded its distribution within this Island, and in the high density area of this alien predator mammal, the number of many endemic animal species has decreased or even disappeared. Ministry of the Environment, Japan, has been controlling H.javanicus population since 2000 and targeting its eradication from this island. There are sometimes alien Rattus rattus in the forest, which is usually an important winter prey of H.javanicus. There may be also some indirect effects of H.javanicus population change through R.rattus and other intermediate native predators on the lower prey species. There are annual fluctuation of acorns and R.rattus and several native animals depend on acorns much. The ecosystem of the forest on Amami Island is dynamic and complicated. Understanding its processes is interesting and important to conserve the nature. We investigated the animal density, observed and hypothetic food web, and present problems of its conservation in terms of the ecosystem restoration measurements.