Forest successional history and earthworm legacy affect earthworm survival and performance

Simmons, Wade; Dávalos, Andrea; Blossey, Bernd

doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2015.05.001

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Both earthworm abundance and plant community composition are influenced by human land use, forest age, herbivory, and climate legacy effects (Simmons et al . ), and synergistic interactions among stressors (eg non‐native plants, earthworms, deer herbivory) are common.…”

Section: Macrocascade Effects Of Earthworm Invasions Of Concern To Somentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence for causal effects of introduced earthworms on plant diversity needs to be examined using a multiple stressor framework (Fisichelli et al 2013;Dávalos et al 2014). Both earthworm abundance and plant community composition are influenced by human land use, forest age, herbivory, and climate legacy effects (Simmons et al 2015), and synergistic interactions among stressors (eg non-native plants, earthworms, deer herbivory) are common.…”

Section: Plant Community Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Side‐swiped: ecological cascades emanating from earthworm invasions

Frelich

Blossey

Cameron

et al. 2019

Frontiers in Ecol & Environ

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Non‐native, invasive earthworms are altering soils throughout the world. Ecological cascades emanating from these invasions stem from rapid consumption of leaf litter by earthworms. This occurs at a midpoint in the trophic pyramid, unlike the more familiar bottom‐up or top‐down cascades. These cascades cause fundamental changes (“microcascade effects”) in soil morphology, bulk density, and nutrient leaching, and a shift to warmer, drier soil surfaces with a loss of leaf litter. In North American temperate and boreal forests, microcascade effects can affect carbon sequestration, disturbance regimes, soil and water quality, forest productivity, plant communities, and wildlife habitat, and can facilitate other invasive species. These broader‐scale changes (“macrocascade effects”) are of greater concern to society. Interactions among these fundamental changes and broader‐scale effects create “cascade complexes” that interact with climate change and other environmental processes. The diversity of cascade effects, combined with the vast area invaded by earthworms, leads to regionally important changes in ecological functioning.

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Section: Macrocascade Effects Of Earthworm Invasions Of Concern To Somentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plant Community Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Side‐swiped: ecological cascades emanating from earthworm invasions

Frelich

Blossey

Cameron

et al. 2019

Frontiers in Ecol & Environ

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“…We are unable to assess how plant invasion and deer browse intensity have interacted historically to facilitate changes in native or introduced plant abundance. But earthworm abundance itself is a function of deer presence, deer exclusion results in declines of earthworms over time ( Dávalos et al 2015c ), and earthworms also decline as forests age ( Simmons et al 2015 ) suggesting a complicated web of interactions that we are only slowly beginning to understand ( Dobson and Blossey 2015 ; Craven et al 2016 ). At West Point, both native and non-native vegetation composition was strongly affected by earthworm density at the beginning of our investigations ( Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing plant community composition fails to capture impacts of white-tailed deer on native and invasive plant species

Nuzzo¹,

Dávalos

Blossey

2017

AoB PLANTS

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Excessive herbivory by native deer can reduce abundance of native vegetation and increase non-native vegetation, but how does the forest recover when deer are excluded or numbers are reduced? The expectation is that understory vegetation will return to a previously diverse condition, but this is not always the case. We found that community-level monitoring captured both change and lack of change in vegetation cover, height, species richness, and response of common species, but failed to capture response of uncommon species. In contrast, monitoring of target species favored by deer indicated increased plant size and reproduction when deer were reduced or excluded. We conclude that measuring individual plants (growth, flowering and reproductive success) provides a sensitive and powerful assessment of forest understory responses to deer management.

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“…However, there is a deeply rooted positive attitude toward earthworms in human populations in North America, acknowledging their beneficial effects on agricultural soils and urban gardens (Simmons et al 2015;Plaas et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pontoscolex corethrurus:a Homeless Invasive Tropical Earthworm?

Ortíz-Ceballos

Ortíz-Gamino

Andrade‐Torres

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The presence of earthworm species in crop fields is as old as agriculture itself. The earthworms Pontoscolex corethrurus (invasive) and Balanteodrilus pearsei (native) are associated with the emergence of agriculture and sedentism in the region Amazon and Maya, respectively. Both species have shifted their preference from their natural habitat to the cropland niche; however, they contrast in terms of intensification of agricultural land use (anthropic impact to the symbiotic soil microbiome). P. corethrurus inhabits conventional agroecosystems (pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are applied to soil), while B. pearsei thrives in traditional agroecosystems (biological management of soil); that is, P. corethrurus has not yet been recorded in soils where B. pearsei dwells. The demographic behavior of these two earthworm species was assessed in the laboratory over 100 days, according to their origin (OE; P. corethrurus and B.pearsei) food quality (FQ; soil only, maize stubble, and Mucuna pruriens), and soil moisture (SM; 25, 33, and 42%). The results showed that OE, FQ, SM, and the OE x FQ interaction were highly significant for the survival, growth, and reproduction of earthworms. P. corethrurus showed a lower survival rate (> mortality). P. corethrurus survivors fed a diet of low-tointermediate nutritional quality (soil and corn stalks, respectively) showed a greater capacity to grow and reproduce; however, it was surpassed by the native earthworm when fed a high-quality diet (M. pruriens). Besides, P. corethrurus displayed a low cocoon hatching (emergence of juveniles). These results suggest that the presence of the invasive species was associated with the absence of natural mutualistic bacteria (gut, nephridia, and cocoons), and with a negative interaction with the soil microbiota where the native species dwells. These results are consistent with the absence of P. corethrurus in milpa and pasture-type agricultural niches managed by peasants (agroecologists) to grow food regularly a biological management of soil. The results reported here and the published information jointly (e.g., designation of the neotype and 3 ambiguity of the place of origin) jointly suggest that P. corethrurus is an invasive species that is neither wild nor domesticated, that is, its eco-evolutionary phylogeny needs to be derived based on its symbionts.

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Forest successional history and earthworm legacy affect earthworm survival and performance

Cited by 15 publications

References 94 publications

Side‐swiped: ecological cascades emanating from earthworm invasions

Side‐swiped: ecological cascades emanating from earthworm invasions

Assessing plant community composition fails to capture impacts of white-tailed deer on native and invasive plant species

Pontoscolex corethrurus:a Homeless Invasive Tropical Earthworm?

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