Dean E. Biggins
David A. Eads
2015
<p><span>Invasive transformer species change the character, condition, form, or nature of ecosystems and deserve considerable attention from conservation scientists. We applied the transformer species concept to the plague bacterium </span><span class="fixed-roman">Yersinia pestis</span><span><span> </span>in western North America, where the pathogen was introduced around 1900.<span> </span></span><span class="fixed-roman">Y. pestis</span><span><span> </span>transforms grassland ecosystems by severely depleting the abundance of prairie dogs (</span><span class="fixed-roman">Cynomys spp.</span><span>) and thereby causing declines in native species abundance and diversity, including threatened and endangered species; altering food web connections; altering the import and export of nutrients; causing a loss of ecosystem resilience to encroaching invasive plants; and modifying prairie dog burrows.<span> </span></span><span class="fixed-roman">Y. pestis</span><span><span> </span>poses an important challenge to conservation biologists because it causes trophic-level perturbations that affect the stability of ecosystems. Unfortunately, understanding of the effects of<span> </span></span><span class="fixed-roman">Y. pestis</span><span><span> </span>on ecosystems is rudimentary, highlighting an acute need for continued research.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.1111/cobi.12498
en
Wiley
Plague bacterium as a transformer species in prairie dogs and the grasslands of western North America
article