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A dry future for the Everglades favors invasive herpetofauna

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Abstract

The Greater Everglades Ecosystem is a globally important ecoregion, home to 68 threatened or endangered species and the largest designated wilderness area in the Eastern United States. Anthropogenic manipulations of the natural hydrology have led to widespread degradation of this ecosystem and monitored population declines across multiple taxa. Simultaneous introductions of hundreds of non-native species into South Florida and their subsequent invasion into the Everglades has further impacted native Everglades communities. Predictions for future climate change suggest that the Everglades is headed towards a drier future, making it crucial to understand how changes in hydrological regimes will impact both native and non-native fauna. Our study combines the results of a landscape-scale experimental manipulation conducted to assess the impact of differing hydrological regimes at the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment between 2018 and 2020 with a community composition analysis of data collected across multiple habitat types throughout Everglades National Park between 2000 and 2002. Both datasets used a variety of survey methods to extensively characterize the amphibian and reptile amphibian assemblage across habitat types and hydrological regimes. An NMDS analysis indicated that variation in hydrology is the primary axis structuring reptile and amphibian habitat usage across the Everglades, with non-native species more likely to be indicators of drier habitat types. This result concurred with those from the landscape-scale manipulation, in which non-native species were significantly favored by drier hydrological conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that a drier future within the Greater Everglades Ecosystem may facilitate further spread of South Florida’s diverse non-native amphibian and reptile assemblage.

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Data Availability

Data is available at https://github.com/Hunterhowell04/Everglades_Herp_Data.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank T. Fonseca, J. Levine, J. McNichols, M. Harman, and M. David for their assistance in the field, S. Clements, C. Mothes, and L. Stemle for their assistance in the field and with manuscript reviews, and D. DeAngelis, M. Cook, and M. Afkhami for extensive manuscript reviews and project development. We would also like to thank South Florida Water Management District and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for the funding for this project. All work was done under Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission permit #LSSC–16–00013, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Protocol Permit #17–173, Nation Wide Permit #27 with a cooperative agreement with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service #C–14050, and in accordance with ASIH/HL/SSAR Guidelines for use of Live Amphibians and Reptiles in Field Research.

Funding

South Florida Water Management Research Grant, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Miami, 1301 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

    Hunter J. Howell, Giacomo L. Delgado, Alyssa C. Wood, Leila M. Thompson & Christopher A. Searcy

  2. Everglades Systems Assessment, South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL, 33416, USA

    Eric A. Cline

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  1. Hunter J. Howell
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  2. Giacomo L. Delgado
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Howell, H.J., Delgado, G.L., Wood, A.C. et al. A dry future for the Everglades favors invasive herpetofauna. Biol Invasions 23, 3119–3133 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02562-z

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