Cross-ecosystem impacts of non-native ungulates on wetland communities
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Cross-ecosystem impacts of non-native ungulates on wetland communities Luciana Motta . M. Noelia Barrios-Garcia Mariano A. Rodriguez-Cabal
. Sebastia´n A. Ballari
.
Received: 31 March 2020 / Accepted: 20 July 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Herbivory by non-native species can create strong direct and indirect effects on plant and arthropods communities that can potentially cross ecosystem boundaries. Yet, the cross-ecosystems impacts of non-native species are poorly understood. We took advantage of ongoing invasions by nonnative ungulates in Patagonia, Argentina, to examine their cross-ecosystem impacts on water parameters, littoral vegetation and aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages in wetlands. We found a gradient of invasion by non-native ungulates from intact (noninvaded) to highly invaded wetlands. These highly
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02323-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. L. Motta (&) M. A. Rodriguez-Cabal Grupo de Ecologı´a de Invasiones, INIBIOMA – CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Av. de los Pioneros 2350, CP. 8400, Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina e-mail: [email protected] L. Motta M. N. Barrios-Garcia S. A. Ballari Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, CENAC – APN, CONICET, Fagnano 244, CP. 8400, Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina M. N. Barrios-Garcia M. A. Rodriguez-Cabal Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
invaded wetlands had * 24% less vegetation cover, which was 72% shorter in height than vegetation in intact wetlands. As a result, the abundance of predatory macroinvertebrates such as Odonata (dragonflies) was reduced by * 90%; while Diptera were * 170% more abundant, and Oligochaeta were recorded mostly at invaded sites. In contrast, we did not find evidence that non-native ungulates altered water parameters. Understanding the indirect consequences of invasive non-native species is crucial for quantifying the real impacts of global change. Our results show strong cross-ecosystem impacts of non-native ungulates on macroinvertebrate wetland communities, highlighting the importance of indirect interactions beyond ecosystem boundaries. Keywords Aquatic-terrestrial ecosystems Indirect effects Non-native invasive species Macroinvertebrates Littoral vegetation
Introduction Understanding how the homogenization of biodiversity at multiple scales and levels of organization will influence community and ecosystem functioning has become a major focus of modern ecology. When trying to understand how individuals move or energy flows through an ecosystem, ecologists have often
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focused on smaller components (e.g., the soil, a stream) (Lindeman 1942) of larger ecosystems (such as a forest) and have tended to ignore the inherent relationships between these ‘subsystems’. However, aquatic and terr
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