Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife Species Influencing US Ecosystems Michael Schwartz Randi Lesagonicz John Kilgo
Outline I. Framework for Understanding Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife (What is an ITW?) – Operational Definitions II. Review of Invasive Species by State and Ecoregion / Available Resources III. Early Detection Essential – New Tools (Genomics and eDNA!)
Framework for Understanding Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife (What is an ITW?) Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife – All vertebrates in the subgroups of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals that were introduced by non-natural means into the United States . Yes Yes No
What is an Invader: Does Time Matter? Wolf / Domestic Dog Polynesian Rat Feral horses 40,000-12,000 ybp 400 Mid-1500s Feral Hogs Greenhouse Frog Collared Dove 1539 1875 1980
What is an Invader?: Does Facilitated Range Expansion Create An Invasive Species? • On Invasive list in AK and GA • Transplanted into FL, GA • Natural Expansion
What is an Invader?: Does an Invasive Species Need to Have A Disjoint Distribution? Continuous vs Discrete Only CO considers them invasive, and USGS
What is an Invader?: Other Considerations To be an Invasive does it need to : 1. Have Impact? (Consequence of the invasion?) 2. Be Expanding? Hottentot Teal (From Africa / Madagascar) Burmese Python Florida
Framework for Understanding Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife (What is an ITW?) Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife – All vertebrates in the subgroups of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals that were introduced by non-natural means into the United States . • Post Pleistocene Time • Not Including Facilitated Range Expansion • Considered Invasive Regardless of Impact • Considered Invasive Regardless of Trend of Expansion • Considered Invasive if Expansion Crossed A Discrete Geographic or Ecological Barrier
Why do We Care?
Human Expense See Pimentel 2002
Human Expense • Estimated $800M in • Estimated 1.1 billion/yr damages agricultural damage (Pimentel et al. 1999) • Aviation hazard • Vectors for >50 human and livestock diseases
Local Species Extinctions • 1741 introduced to Aleutian Chain • Decimated Hawaii birds • 1910-1940 Fox farming • 130+ spp. (11 not endangered) • After removal (39 islands) • Harper and Bunbury (2015) seabird response - increase of nesting birds 5 fold in 10 years (Ebbert and Byrd 2000) • Aleutian Canada Goose went from 1000 in 1975 to 35,000 in 2000)
Invasion and Impact: Expanding and Large Per Capita Effect (Keystone) – A Deadly Combination Burmese Python
Road surveys totaling 56,971 km from 2003 – 2011 documented: • 99.3% decrease in the frequency of raccoon observations, • 98.9% decrease opossum • 87.5% decrease bobcat observations • 100% decrease in all rabbit species
Ecosystem Engineers / Keystone Introduced: 1899 1539 Damage: burrowing, tunneling levees Crop damage, prey on livestock Damage native plant roots road bed, dock burrowing, crops: sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum Cost: unknown (many multimillion $ projects) US$1.5B / yr
Outline I. Framework for Understanding Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife (What is an ITW?) – Operational Definitions II. Review of Invasive Species by State and Ecoregion / Available Resources III. Early Detection Essential – New Tools (Genomics and eDNA!)
State by State Review • Googled “State name” and “invasive species” (not including other commonwealths or protectorates) • Compiled a list of all species considered invasive by state and included common name, scientific name, taxa affiliation, origin, introduction method, location of release/invasion point, comments, map of current geographic range, and current ecosystem
State by State Review • 117 web pages (75 unique sites) • 45 State pages • 6 Federal pages • 13 University sites • Remainder were NGO, County, or Other • 464 Species on the list
Federal
Federal
State
NGO
NatureServe – imapInvasives Initiative
University Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystems Health (University of Georgia)
State by State Review (Evidence of reporting bias / different operational definitions) Many with 7 (SC, NH, OK) 35 30 25 20 Count Florida (268) Montana (113) 15 Alaska (55) California 10 5 0 > 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Bin (Number of Terrestrial Invasives)
Are there some ecoregions / USFS lands where invasive species are more prevalent? • Unique species list was created from the state list • Randomized list - top 10 species per taxa affiliation (mammals, amphibian, reptile, bird, included 2 keystone) • GIS data was downloaded from IUCN red list’s maps and from the National Gap Analysis program by USGS • Many maps in progress for reptiles and amphibians in US (IUCN) • Sample of 34 species.
Burmese Python – Exotic Range Not Mapped (Excluded from our analysis)
European Hare – IUCN (but known in AK, HI, CA)
European Collared Dove
Ecoregion (Omernik 1987) Level 1
Ranked Order of Ecoregions Impacted By Invaders (High to Low) • NORTH AMERICAN DESERTS • MEDITERRANEAN CALIFORNIA • EASTERN TEMPERATE FORESTS • GREAT PLAINS • MARINE WEST COAST FOREST • TROPICAL WET FORESTS • NORTHERN FORESTS • NORTHWESTERN FORESTED MOUNTAINS • SOUTHERN SEMIARID HIGHLANDS • TEMPERATE SIERRAS • TAIGA • TUNDRA
Invasives per Ecoregion Scaled by Area of Ecoregion Mediterranean 18 California North American Deserts 16 14 Invasives 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 Area
Invasives per Ecoregion Scaled by Area of Ecoregion Mediterranean 18 California North American Deserts 16 Tropical Wet Forest 14 Invasives 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 Area
Invasives per Ecoregion Scaled by Area of Ecoregion Mediterranean 18 California North American Deserts 16 Tropical Wet Forest 14 Invasives 12 10 8 6 Taiga 4 Tundra 2 0 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 Area
Invasives per Ecoregion Scaled by Area of Ecoregion 18 Mediterranean California 16 North American Deserts Tropical Wet 14 Eastern Temperate Forest Forest Great Plains Marine West Coast Northwestern Forested Mts 12 Northern Forests 10 Southern Semiarid Highlands 8 Temperate Sierras 6 Taiga 4 2 Tundra 0 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000
National Forest Lands - Highlights • Invasive Terrestrial Species on All 285 USFS Units • Starlings, House Mouse, and House Sparrow – most common (283, 285, and 282 units) • Feral Pigs on 101 units • Nutria are in 4 regions (knocking on door of 3 more)
Conclusions Many Efforts to Map Terrestrial Animal Invasions Most are Local or are Not Sustained (Yet, another Server Error) Best Long Term Databases are IUCN (Europe Bias) or GAP (Incomplete) New Tools and Techniques are Available to Detect Terrestrial Invasions Research is needed to Identify where threat is greatest by USFS unit.
Outline I. Framework for Understanding Invasive Terrestrial Wildlife (What is an ITW?) – Operational Definitions II. Review of Invasive Species by State and Ecoregion / Available Resources III. Early Detection Essential – New Tools (Genomics and eDNA!)
Filter stream water DNA from target species sloughed into stream eDNA Detection Analyze results Laboratory analysis to detect DNA of target species
Amplify unique DNA barcodes from each species
Amplify unique DNA barcodes from each species Pool DNA barcodes
Pool DNA barcodes Attach barcodes to magnetic beads
eDNA sample Pool DNA barcodes Attach barcodes to magnetic beads
eDNA sample bacterial DNA Capture target DNA (Eliminate non-target DNA)
✓ ✓ Sequence captured DNA ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓
eDNA and Genomics = Biodiversity Panel Common_Name eDNA_002 eDNA_005 eDNA_008 eDNA_009 eDNA_010 eDNA_011 Stonefly - Golden Stone Mayfly - Western Green Drake Northern Pike 3 Cutthroat Trout* 7 10 8 3 Pacific Salmon 2 14 12 11 6 Rainbow Trout - inland 2 4 13 5 4 2 Whitefish* 4 8 12 10 4 Brown Trout 5 4 8 4 3 Bull Trout* 3 5 6 4 2 Brook Trout 5 4 3 2 Lake Trout 3 2 3 Grayling Slimy Sculpin (SCCC) Columbia Spotted Frog RM Tailed Frog Idaho Giant Salamander North American River Otter 2 2 American Mink 2 3 3 Beaver 4 Human 2 2 Osprey Nutria
LDNA? Annamite striped Small-toothed Truong Son Serow rabbit Ferret-badger munjtac
DNA Demonstrates Reinvasion not Survival in NZ
Conclusions Many Efforts to Map Terrestrial Animal Invasions Most are Local or are Not Sustained (Yet, another Server Error) Best Long Term Databases are IUCN (Europe Bias) or GAP (Incomplete) New Tools and Techniques are Available to Detect Terrestrial Invasions Research is needed to Identify where threat is greatest by USFS unit.
Databases Matter! Need Standardization Monk parakeet
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