Potential impacts of invasive European earthworms and soil moisture on herbaceous species richness within the Ojibwa Red Lake Reservation
Abstract
Throughout many northern North American forests invasive earthworms have caused significant ecological alteration to soil structure and chemistry, fine root distributions, duff and litter layer thickness, and soil moisture. Additionally, this phenomenon has been implicated in shifts in herbaceous-layer vegetation. Over the past 4 years, we have established research plots in forests on the Ojibwa Red Lake Reservation (Minnesota) to study the impact of exotic earthworms on forest ecosystem structure and functions. To examine herbaceous-layer response to potential gradients in earthworm abundance and soil moisture, we conducted surveys of herbaceous-layer species cover, earthworm abundance, and soil moisture across six plot dispersed along a previously identified gradient of earthworm activity. Our initial results have shown that the earthworms abundance is positively related to soil moisture (R2 = 0.76, P = 0.023). Herbaceous species richness displayed a strong negative relationship to soil moisture (R2 = 0.91, P < 0.001) and a weak negative relationship to earthworm abundance (R2 =0.51, P = 0.113). On average, the number of earthworms is increasing and the sites with more earthworms typically have less leaf litter. Additional work is needed to determine if earthworms are influencing site moisture conditions, or if moisture availability is a driver of earthworm abundance.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFMED21A0663T
- Keywords:
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- 0850 EDUCATION / Geoscience education research