{"id":9962,"date":"2016-09-09T08:16:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T08:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=9962"},"modified":"2016-09-09T08:16:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T08:16:52","slug":"voracious-asian-jumping-worms-strip-forest-floor-and-flood-soil-with-nutrients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/voracious-asian-jumping-worms-strip-forest-floor-and-flood-soil-with-nutrients\/","title":{"rendered":"Voracious Asian jumping worms strip forest floor and flood soil with nutrients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"The<\/a>
The Asian jumping worm, first found in Wisconsin in 2013 in the UW Arboretum, is best identified by its flat, tan band and the way it flops and jumps when disturbed. (Photo courtesy UW Arboretum\/Susan Day)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gardeners tend to look at earthworms as good helpers that break down fallen leaves and other organic matter into nutrients plants can use.<\/span><\/p>\n

But not all earthworms do the same work in the soil. New research from the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison shows that Asian jumping worms, an invasive species\u00a0first found in Wisconsin in 2013<\/span><\/a>, may do their work too well, speeding up the exit of nutrients from the soil before plants can process them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEarthworms are the kind of organisms we call ecosystem engineers. They change the physical and chemical properties of the ecosystem as they dig and feed,\u201d says Monica Turner, a UW\u2013Madison professor of zoology. \u201cBut nobody really understood if these Asian worms would have the same effect as the European worms we have had here for many years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jiangxiao Qiu, a former graduate student in Turner\u2019s laboratory and now a postdoctoral researcher with The Nature Conservancy, studied the impact the Asian worms \u2014 of the species\u00a0Amynthas agrestis<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Amynthas tokioensis<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 from July through October of 2014 in the forest at the UW Arboretum, and conducted an experiment on soil samples taken from around southern Wisconsin. Qiu\u2019s work was published this week in the journal Biological Invasions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike deep-dwelling European earthworms, the Asian jumping worms \u2014 named for the way they flop and wriggle when held or disturbed \u2014 prefer to live and eat within a few centimeters of the soil surface.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat most interested me was how these earthworms would change the forest floor, especially the litter layer on top of the soil \u2014 dead leaves and twigs and other materials,\u201d says Qiu. \u201cAnd we could see the difference they made in the physical structure of the soil and the amount of leaf litter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Jiangxiao<\/a>
Jiangxiao Qiu measures soil conditions in samples containing invasive Asian jumping worms. The worms eat faster than European species, clearing leaf litter from the forest floor. (Photo courtesy Jiangxiao Qiu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leaf litter declined by 95 percent in forested study areas, and the Asian worms left behind residue that was almost pebbly in consistency \u2014 grainy little balls of dirt that may make it hard for the seeds of native plants to germinate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSome plants need that leaf litter layer to get established at all,\u201d Turner says. \u201cIf the litter layer is gone, and the soil is bare and clumpy, the earthworms may help weedy plants come in along with other invasive plants that we don\u2019t want.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Through their flexible diets and high numbers, the Asian invaders make quick work of whatever food they find.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese earthworms live in much higher density than European earthworms, and that leads to a much faster transformation from litter to available nutrients,\u201d Qiu says. \u201cThis increases the nutrients \u2014 such as carbon, nitrogen and available phosphorus\u2014 in the top soil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Concentrations in the soil of some minerals released from the leaf litter as the worms eat increased down to a depth of 25 centimeters, and spiked later in the growing season when the worms are largest and most active.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they take nutrients that are not available to plants \u2014 because they\u2019re tied up in the dead leaves \u2014 and make them available to plants is something you might like to have happen in your garden,\u201d Turner says. \u201cBut from our numbers, these worms make that natural process happen roughly twice as fast. It\u2019s like a fast-release fertilizer instead of slow-release, and that changes where the nutrients end up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They may end up washing away before they can benefit many plants that count on a slower release, and then turn up where they\u2019re not wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]Turner and other UW\u2013Madison researchers are working on new studies exploring the invasive worms\u2019 range, how plants may deal with the changing soil chemistry, and the interaction between the Asian jumping worms and invasive plants like buckthorn.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

\u201cNitrate dissolves readily in water, and it moves with water. It\u2019s disappearing with the rain,\u201d says Turner. \u201cAnd nitrate is a groundwater contaminant in many wells in Wisconsin, so it\u2019s not just the plants that benefit if the nitrate does not infiltrate deeper and deeper into the ground.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Qiu noted the biggest changes in forest soils, samples from prairie soils showed changes, too. And grasslands are the choice habitat for the worms in their native ranges in East Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests the prairie ecosystems might also be susceptible to future invasions,\u201d says Qiu, whose research was supported by the National Science Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turner and other UW\u2013Madison researchers are working on new studies exploring the invasive worms\u2019 range, how plants may deal with the changing soil chemistry, and the interaction between the Asian jumping worms and invasive plants like buckthorn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the balance between a lot of competing plant, animal and microbial processes that will determine the long-term effect of these earthworms,\u201d Turner says.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEarthworms are the kind of organisms we call ecosystem engineers. They change the physical and chemical properties of the ecosystem as they dig and feed,\u201d says Monica Turner, a UW\u2013Madison professor of zoology. \u201cBut nobody really understood if these Asian worms would have the same effect as the European worms we have had here for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jiangxiao Qiu, a former graduate student in Turner\u2019s laboratory and now a postdoctoral researcher with The Nature Conservancy, studied the impact the Asian worms \u2014 of the species Amynthas agrestis and Amynthas tokioensis \u2014 from July through October of 2014 in the forest at the UW Arboretum, and conducted an experiment on soil samples taken from around southern Wisconsin. Qiu\u2019s work was published this week in the journal Biological Invasions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2-202x300.jpg",202,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",243,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",44,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",303,448,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",65,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/worm2.jpg",150,222,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Biology<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}