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Behavioral responses of a native salamander to native and invasive earthworms

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Abstract

Invasive species may positively affect native organisms by providing habitat, serving as prey, or acting as an ecological substitute for a beneficial native species. I examined whether the behavioral responses to invasive earthworms of Plethodon cinereus, a woodland salamander native to eastern North America, were influenced by co-occurrence with native earthworms. Co-occurrence with native earthworms varies throughout North America because earthworms were extirpated from the northern portion of the continent during the Wisconsin Glacial Episode. Non-native earthworms have invaded most of North America, including once-glaciated areas. I compared responses to earthworms by P. cinereus from (1) historically glaciated areas with no co-occurrence (for ~7 ky) with native or invasive earthworms, (2) historically glaciated areas with recent co-occurrence (~10 years) with invasive earthworms, but no historical co-occurrence (for ~7 ky) with native earthworms, or (3) unglaciated areas with recent and historical co-occurrence with invasive and native earthworms. Salamanders from different areas did not differentiate between native (Eisenoides carolinensis or Diplocardia sp.) and invasive earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) as prey or differentiate between their burrows. Salamander burrow use and time to first burrow use were influenced by recent or historical co-occurrence with earthworms, respectively. Salamanders with historical range overlap with native earthworms had shorter latencies to attack and handling times, and were more likely to consume earthworms. As globalization increases the frequency and impact of invasive species in native systems, we should consider the multiple ways in which invasive species interact with native communities and potential geographic variation in the responses of native organisms to invasives.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to R. Cáceres-Charneco and B. Billak for their labor and assistance. I thank H. Wilbur, J. Antonovics, E. Brodie III, D. Carr, K. Burke, F. Kraus, L. Galloway, S. Seamster, A. Wilkinson, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. K. Woods, N. Karberg, E. Lilleskov, and E. Liebgold provided logistic support and assistance in MI. Funding for this project was provided by Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation, Sigma Xi, SDE-GWIS, Mountain Lake Biological Station, Chicago Herpetologists’ League, and the Virginia Herpetological Society. I thank Huron Mountain Club for access to their preserve. McCormick™ provided mustard for earthworm extraction and collection in VA. Salamanders were collected in MI under a DNR permit to T. Ransom approved 2/4/08. Salamanders in VA were collected under VDGIF permit # 30986. Research conducted under UVA IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) protocol no. 3063.

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  1. Tami S. Ransom

    Present address: Department of Biology, Wabash College, P.O. Box 352, Crawfordsville, IN, 47933, USA

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4328, USA

    Tami S. Ransom

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Ransom, T.S. Behavioral responses of a native salamander to native and invasive earthworms. Biol Invasions 14, 2601–2616 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0255-4

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