Biological invasions are one of great challenges currently facing environmental scientists. While most invasion research has focused on aboveground organisms (plants, animals), invasions in the soil can be equally important. Foreign earthworm species are currently invading North American forests over a wide geographic area and are causing marked changes in the soil environment. Previous NSF-funded research in two forested landscapes in New York State demonstrated that earthworm invasions had striking but complex effects on forest soils, altering the structure of soil profiles, and changing the dynamics of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. This renewal project will address how earthworm invasions affect carbon and nitrogen dynamics by altering the soil food web. Stable isotopes (13C and 15N) will be used to explore how the flow of carbon and nitrogen through different soil components is related to shifts in soil food web structure as well as to flows into the above-ground food web via woodland salamander populations. The research will be coupled with formal and non-formal K-12 education and outreach efforts, based on the idea that earthworm ecology is a powerful tool for engaging a broad diversity of people in thinking about soils and ecosystems.
