
Wallace M. Meyer IiiPomona College · Department of Biology
Wallace M. Meyer Iii
PhD, Zoology, University of Hawaii
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Publications (46)
Carnivores with large home ranges are especially vulnerable to habitat fragmentation. As coyotes (Canis latrans) are often found living in highly modified landscapes, it is unclear how urban and suburban development impact gene flow between their populations. This study evaluated gene flow among coyotes inhabiting California sage scrub fragments wi...
Our understanding of Hawaiian arboreal snails’ diets remains rudimentary, hindering the development of effective conservation strategies. To identify important food resources, we tested the hypothesis that epiphytic microbial assemblages differ on plant species preferred and avoided by snails at Mt. Kaala Natural Area Reserve, where snail plant pre...
Although mustards (family, Brassicaceae) are common across southern California, research has not focused on the effects of type-conversion of native California sage scrub (CSS) to areas dominated by invasive mustards. To better understand how mustard invasions, primarily the short-pod mustard, Hirschfeldia incana, impact soil microbial assemblages,...
California sage scrub (CSS) is an endangered, shrub-dominated, southern California ecosystem type threatened by increasing fire frequencies and conversion to non-native grasslands. As CSS harbors a rich endemic flora and fauna and is critical for maintaining key ecosystem services; significant attention has been focused on understanding how many ke...
Pollinator studies in the endangered California sage scrub ecosystem have focused on spring insect assemblages, when most plant species bloom. Consequently, the insect assemblages using common fall-blooming sage scrub shrubs Lepidospartum squamatum, Ericameria pinifolia, and Baccharis pilularis remain undescribed. Our study aimed to: (1) document f...
Urban landscaping conversions can alter decomposition processes and soil respiration, making it difficult to forecast regional CO2 emissions. Here we explore rates of initial mass loss and net nitrogen (N) mineralization in natural and four common urban land covers (waterwise, waterwise with mulch, shrub, and lawn) from sites across seven colleges...
Understanding how wildfires and modification in plant assemblages interact to influence soil bacteria assemblages is a crucial step in understanding how these disturbances may influence ecosystem structure and function. Here, we resampled soil from three study sites previously surveyed in spring 2016 and 2017 and compared soil bacterial assemblages...
Insects are in decline globally with Lepidoptera identified as one of the most impacted taxa. While declines in butterfly diversity in southern California are well documented, the effects of common habitat and climate modifications on butterfly assemblages are poorly understood. To better understand how to best monitor changes in butterfly richness...
Seed predation may influence community assembly and invasion dynamics when seed predators preferentially select some seed species over others. However, the role of different seed predators and their preferences for seeds in multiple ecological contexts, including the endangered California sage scrub ecosystem, remain unresolved making predictions a...
Non-native plant invasions, changes in fire regime, and increasing drought stress all pose important threats to biodiverse mediterranean-climate shrublands. These factors can also interact, with fire and drought potentially creating opportunities for non-native species to establish dominance before native shrubs recover. We carried out post-fire de...
Since 1955 snails of the Euglandina rosea species complex and Platydemus manokwari flatworms were widely introduced in attempted biological control of giant African snails (Lissachatina fulica) but have been implicated in the mass extinction of Pacific island snails. We review the histories of the 60 introductions and their impacts on L. fulica and...
Since 1955 snails of the Euglandina rosea species complex and Platydemus manokwari flat-worms were widely introduced in attempted biological control of giant African snails (Lissachatina fulica) but have been implicated in the mass extinction of Pacific island snails. We review the histories of the 60 introductions and their impacts on L.
Since 1955 snails of the Euglandina rosea species complex and Platydemus manokwari flat-worms were widely introduced in attempted biological control of giant African snails (Lissachatina fulica) but have been implicated in the mass extinction of Pacific island snails. We review the histories of the 60 introductions and their impacts on L.fulica and...
Changes in plant assemblages can influence biotic and abiotic soil conditions. These changes can cause plant–soil feedbacks that can inhibit or facilitate plant germination and growth. Here, we contribute to a growing literature examining plant–soil feedbacks in the endangered sage scrub ecosystem by examining the germination and growth of Artemisi...
Predicting how plant invasions influence decomposition processes is difficult, as multiple factors change with plant community alteration. Here, we examined the importance of various abiotic and biotic factors (litter quality (C:N), UV radiation, and macroinvertebrate access) in driving early decomposition processes in native California sage scrub...
To preserve native floras and faunas of tropical oceanic islands, it is critical to limit the establishment of terrestrial non-native gastropods (i.e. snails, including slugs), particularly those from temperate regions, as they can become abundant in high elevation areas, often the last refuges of native species. In Hawaii, the horticultural trade...
Herbivory is poorly characterized in the endangered California sage scrub ecosystem, because previous studies were conducted only in winter and spring. To better understand vertebrate herbivore impacts, we first examined if and when vertebrate herbivores influence Artemisia californica seedling survivorship by examining differences in mortality bet...
Non‐native plant invasions can alter nutrient cycling processes and contribute to global climate change. In southern California, California sage scrub (hereafter sage scrub), a native shrub‐dominated habitat type in lowland areas, has decreased to <10% of its original distribution. Postdisturbance type‐conversion to non‐native annual grassland, and...
Urban systems often support large numbers of non-native species, but due to the heterogeneity of urban landscapes, species are not evenly distributed. Understanding the drivers of ecological resistance in urban landscapes may help to identify habitats that are most resistant to invasion, and inform efforts to model and conserve native biodiversity....
Fuel loads from invasive annual grasses different from natives can alter the fire regime to one that positively feedbacks to their establishment, known as the grass-fire cycle. Nitrogen (N) deposition can exacerbate the grass-fire cycle by favoring non-native annual grasses and increase their biomass production, generating greater fuel loads. Less...
Few studies have examined impacts of fire on invertebrates in southern California ecosystems despite the fact they harbor diverse invertebrate assemblages with many narrowly endemic species. California sage scrub, an endangered ecosystem type of low-elevation areas in southern California, is increasingly threatened by altered fire regimes and type...
Understanding how invasive plants influence terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets is important in the context of global climate change. In southern California, type-conversion, a process in which native California sage scrub is type-converted to non-native grassland, is thought to negatively impact total C and N storage in surface soil ho...
The introduction of the predatory land snail, Euglandina rosea (Férrusac, 1821) from Florida to Hawaii to control the giant African snail, Lissachatina fulica (Bowdich, 1822) is among the most publicized biological control cases gone awry. Following preliminary genetic analyses that revealed a second, possibly undescribed Euglandina species was pro...
California sage scrub (CSS), a native ecosystem type of low elevation areas of Southern California, is increasingly threatened by urban development, altered fire regimes, and type-conversion to non-native grasslands. Using pitfall traps, we examined how suburbanization, type-conversion and fire influence ground-dwelling spider assemblages in easter...
Human activity has altered global carbon and nitrogen cycles, leading to changes in global temperatures and plant communities. Because atmospheric carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations are affected by storage in terrestrial vegetation and soil, it is critical to understand how conversions from native to non-native vegetation may alter the C an...
The invasive predatory snail Oxychilus alliarius is established in many locations around the world including the Hawaiian Islands. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it negatively impacts indigenous snail species where it has been introduced, although such impacts have not been quantified. On the Hawaiian island of Oahu, we tested the hypothesis that...
The few studies that have addressed past effects of climate change on species distributions have mostly focused on plants due to the rarity of historical faunal baselines. However, hyperdiverse groups like Arthropoda are vital to monitor in order to understand climate change impacts on biodiversity. This is the first investigation of ground-dwellin...
Southern California’s sage scrub (SS) ecosystem is severely threatened by suburban development and invasion by non-native grasses, but how these threats impact the arthropod community is poorly understood. Native ants, which face the additional threat of being displaced by non-native Argentine ants, may be particularly at risk of local and regional...
Terrestrial micromolluscs (snails with an adult maximum shell dimension <5 mm) constitute a considerable proportion of the land snail fauna of the Pacific. However, micromolluscs are often underestimated in biological surveys because of size bias. It has been argued that visual searches are preferable on Pacific islands because: (1) size biases are...
The roles of terrestrial molluscs in many important ecosystem processes are largely unknown, particularly in tropical forests. It has been suggested from studies in temperate forests that snails/slugs contribute to litter decomposition directly (by their own metabolism) and/or indirectly (by habitat modification enhancing micro-arthropod or microbi...
Models analyzing how Southwestern plant communities will respond to climate change predict that increases in temperature will lead to upward elevational shifts of montane species. We tested this hypothesis by reexamining Robert Whittaker's 1963 plant transect in the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona, finding that this process is already...
The Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP) is a new multi-disciplinary research program at the University of Arizona that combines systematics, biogeography, ecology, and population genetics to study origins and patterns of arthropod diversity along elevation gradients and among mountain ranges in the Madrean Sky Island Region. Arthropods repr...
Although non-native species have been implicated as a major factor in the decline of the native Hawaiian land snail fauna, little attention has been focused on understanding how colonization by non-native plants influences Hawaiian land snail populations. The plant preferences of native Hawaiian succineids in the Kohala Forest Reserve were examined...
The purposeful introduction of the land snail Euglandina rosea, which feeds exclusively on snails and slugs, has been implicated as a major factor in the decline of diverse Pacific island land snail faunas. We report on the distribution, movement patterns, and microhabitat preferences of E. rosea in a gulch in the Waianae Mountains, Oahu, Hawaii, b...
Soil and adjacent leaf-litter environments support a diverse decomposer fauna. This has led to what is known as -the enigma of the soil fauna-, or the question of how it is possible for such large numbers of species to coexist without obvious biotic mechanisms, such as competitive exclusion, limiting coexistence (Anderson 1975). Dietary specializat...
Macro-invertebrates (>2 mm in size) can play a key role in litter decomposition by influencing litter chemistry and other components of the decomposer community, thus affecting rates of decomposition, nutrient release, and primary production. However, in many ecosystems the influences of macro-invertebrates on key ecosystem processes have not been...
Trophic Cascades: Predators, Prey, and the Changing Dynamics of Nature edited by Terborgh John and Estes James A. (2010), xx + 464 pp., Island Press, Washington, DC, USA. ISBN 9781597264877 (pbk), GBP 27.00. - Volume 45 Issue 1 - Wallace M. Meyer
Two introduced predatory land snails, Euglandina rosea and Oxychilus alliarius, have been implicated in the decline of native Hawaiian and Pacific island land snails. We examined the feeding ecology of E. rosea and O. alliarius, focusing first on prey size and species preferences, and second on quantifying consumption rates, which is necessary to a...
To protect the remaining biodiversity on tropical islands it is important to predict the elevational ranges of non-native species. We evaluated two hypotheses by examining land snail faunas on the eastern (windward) side of the island of Hawaii: (1) the latitude of a species' native region can be used to predict its potential elevational range and...
Understanding interactions among nonindigenous species that pose a threat to native species is crucial to effectively preserve native biodiversity. Captive feeding trials demonstrated that the black rat, Rattus rattus, will readily consume two of the most destructive nonindigenous snails, the giant African snail, Achatina fulica (100% predation), a...
Individuals of Achatina fulica (Bowdich, 1822) were observed preying on veronicellid slugs at two sites on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. As such, the presence of A. fulica may pose a greater threat to terrestrial mollusc conservation than previously imagined. It is our hope that this note provides some impetus for other researchers to explore the pos...
The horticultural industry is an important vector of alien snails and slugs. Surveys of nurseries in the Hawaiian Islands recorded 31 terrestrial snail/slug species, all but two of them alien and five previously unrecorded. Individual facilities had 1–17 species. In total, 38 non-native terrestrial snail/slug species have become established, origin...