Afterlife effects of invasive wasps nests on soil properties

MOREYRA SABRINA; MARINA GONZALEZ-POLO; MARIA NOELIA BARRIOS-GARCIA

London

Conferencia; Festival of Ecology; 2020

British Ecological Society

Vespula wasps are successful invaders in many countries around the world. These social wasps have an annual life cycle, with underground nests that can reach large sizes with several thousands individuals. The death of the colony at the end of the season may have afterlife effects on soil nutrients and plant growth. To address this hypothesis, we collected soil samples ~16 months after the colony death as well as adjacent soil samples as controls. We measured soil nutrients content, soil enzyme activity, plant growth, and leaf tissue nutrient content. We found 4-fold greater soil enzyme activity (BG-LAP), 80-fold more P, and 2-fold more N content in nest soils than in control soils. Additionally, plants growing in nest soils had 10-fold greater biomass, and 2-fold more N content than those growing on control soils. Our results show that invasive wasps have afterlife effects on soil properties, creating nutrient hotspots for plants.