scholarly journals Phylogenetic α- and β-Diversities Jointly Reveal Leaf-Litter Ant Community Assembly Mechanisms Along a Tropical Elevational Gradient

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gibran Renoy Pérez-Toledo ◽  
Fabricio Villalobos ◽  
Rogerio R. Silva ◽  
Claudia E. Moreno ◽  
Marcio Pie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Habitat Specialization ◽  
Evolutionary Information ◽  
Elevational Gradients ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Stable Conditions ◽  
Phylogenetic Dissimilarity

Abstract Despite the long-standing interest in the organization of ant communities across elevational gradients, few studies have incorporated the evolutionary information to understand the historical processes that underlay such patterns. Through the evaluation of phylogenetic α and β-diversity, we analyzed the structure of leaf-litter ant communities along the Cofre de Perote mountain in Mexico and inferred its putative driving forces. Lowland and some highland sites showed phylogenetic clustering, whereas intermediate elevations and the highest site presented phylogenetic overdispersion. We infer that strong environmental constrains found at the bottom and the top elevations are favoring closely-related species to prevail at those elevations. Conversely, more benign conditions at intermediate elevations suggest interspecific interactions being more important in these environments. Total phylogenetic dissimilarity was driven by the turnover component, indicating that the turnover of ant species along the mountain is actually shifts of lineages adapted to particular locations resembling their ancestral niche. The greater phylogenetic dissimilarity between communities was related to greater temperature distances probably due to narrow thermal tolerances inherit to several ant lineages that evolved in more stable conditions. Our results suggest that the interplay between environmental filtering, interspecific competition and habitat specialization plays an important role in the assembly of leaf-litter ant communities along elevational gradients.

scholarly journals The conservation value of South East Asia's highly degraded forests: evidence from leaf-litter ants

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1582) ◽  
pp. 3256-3264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Woodcock ◽  
David P. Edwards ◽  
Tom M. Fayle ◽  
Rob J. Newton ◽  
Chey Vun Khen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Species Turnover ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Forest Conversion ◽  
Conservation Value ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Logged Forest

South East Asia is widely regarded as a centre of threatened biodiversity owing to extensive logging and forest conversion to agriculture. In particular, forests degraded by repeated rounds of intensive logging are viewed as having little conservation value and are afforded meagre protection from conversion to oil palm. Here, we determine the biological value of such heavily degraded forests by comparing leaf-litter ant communities in unlogged (natural) and twice-logged forests in Sabah, Borneo. We accounted for impacts of logging on habitat heterogeneity by comparing species richness and composition at four nested spatial scales, and examining how species richness was partitioned across the landscape in each habitat. We found that twice-logged forest had fewer species occurrences, lower species richness at small spatial scales and altered species composition compared with natural forests. However, over 80 per cent of species found in unlogged forest were detected within twice-logged forest. Moreover, greater species turnover among sites in twice-logged forest resulted in identical species richness between habitats at the largest spatial scale. While two intensive logging cycles have negative impacts on ant communities, these degraded forests clearly provide important habitat for numerous species and preventing their conversion to oil palm and other crops should be a conservation priority.

scholarly journals Coexistence of surface and cave amphipods in an ecotone environment

2011 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Luštrik ◽  
Martin Turjak ◽  
Simona Kralj-Fišer ◽  
Cene Fišer
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Habitat Choice ◽  
Intraspecific Interactions ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Predation Effects ◽  
Similar Body ◽  
Subterranean Species

Interspecific interactions between surface and subterranean species may be a key determinant for species distributions. Until now, the existence of competition (including predation) between these groups has not been tested. To assess the coexistence and potential role of interspecific interactions between surface Gammarus fossarum and subterranean Niphargus timavi, and to determine their micro distributions, we conducted a series of field and laboratory observations. We aimed to determine: (1) species substrate preference, (2) whether the presence of G. fossarum influences the habitat choice of N. timavi, and (3) possible predation effects on micro habitat choice of small juveniles. Throughout a small river in SW Slovenia, N. timavi was predominantly found in leaf litter and gravel, but rarely in sand. In the sand however, we exclusively found juveniles. In contrast, surface G. fossarum sheltered mainly in leaf litter. A similar, body size dependent, micro distribution was observed in G. fossarum, where small individuals were generally found in gravel and sand. The presence of G. fossarum affected the micro distribution of juvenile, but not adult, N. timavi. In the laboratory we observed predation and cannibalism in both species. Niphargus timavi, however, appeared to be a more efficient predator than G. fossarum. In particular, juvenile N. timavi were most vulnerable to preying by adults of both species. This probably affected the distribution of juvenile N. timavi that chose finer substrates when placed with adult individuals in an aquarium with granules of different size. To understand the distribution of subterranean species, the summed effect of intraspecific interactions, as well as surface – subterranean species interactions, in particular between individuals of different size, should be taken into account.

A Comparison of Pitfall Traps with Bait Traps for Studying Leaf Litter Ant Communities

2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 761-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changlu Wang ◽  
John Strazanac ◽  
Linda Butler
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Pitfall Traps ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Bait Traps

scholarly journals Responses of leaf-litter ant communities to tropical forest wildfires vary with season

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 515-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana M. Silveira ◽  
Jos Barlow ◽  
Rafael B. Andrade ◽  
Luiz A. M. Mestre ◽  
Sébastien Lacau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Forest Biodiversity ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Agriculture Expansion ◽  
Forest Wildfires

Fire is an important land-management tool in tropical forest landscapes. However, these fires sometimes escape into surrounding forests (Uhl & Buschbacker 1985), and are one of the most severe disturbances threatening tropical forest biodiversity (Barlowet al2006). These forest fires have become more frequent over the last decades due to the combined effect of selective logging, fragmentation and abnormal droughts that increase the flammability of forests, and agriculture expansion that brings the ignition sources (Aragão & Shimabukuro 2010).

Elevation and leaf litter interact in determining the structure of ant communities on a tropical mountain

Biotropica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimmy Moses ◽  
Tom M. Fayle ◽  
Vojtech Novotny ◽  
Petr Klimes
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Tropical Mountain

scholarly journals Altitudinal distribution of leaf litter ants along a transect in primary forests on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten A. Brühl ◽  
Maryati Mohamed ◽  
K. Eduard Linsenmair
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Hot Spots ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Mount Kinabalu ◽  
Leaf Litter Ants ◽  
Primary Forests

The ant communities of the leaf litter were studied along an elevational gradient on Mount Kinabalu in primary rain forest systems ranging from dipterocarp hill forest to dwarf forest of the highest altitudes (560, 800, 1130, 1360, 1530, 1740, 1930, 2025, 2300, 2600 m a.s.l.). The litter ant fauna along the gradient included 283 species of 55 genera. The number of ant species in the leaf litter decreased exponentially without evidence of a peak in species richness at mid-elevations. This result is in contrast to many findings on altitudinal gradients in ants and other animal groups. Most ant species have a very limited altitudinal range leading to high turnover values when comparing communities of different altitudes. Of the ant species, 74% were even restricted to one site. As evident from this study, altitudinal ranges of species are very narrow. Elevational gradients are therefore extremely species-rich and might serve as a prime example of hot spots of biodiversity. This fact is of great concern when implementing conservation strategies.

scholarly journals A modification of the leaf-bags method to assess spring ecosystem functioning: benthic invertebrates and leaf-litter breakdown in Vera Spring (Central Italy)

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Cristiano ◽  
Bruno Cicolani ◽  
Francesco Paolo Miccoli ◽  
Antonio Di Sabatino
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystem ◽  
Litter Breakdown ◽  
Leaf Litter Breakdown ◽  
Detritus Processing ◽  
Stable Conditions ◽  
Leaf Bags

The evaluation of leaf detritus processing (decomposition and breakdown) is one of the most simple and cost-effective method to assess the functional characteristics of freshwater ecosystems. However, in comparison with other freshwater habitats, information on leaf litter breakdown in spring ecosystems is still scarce and fragmentary. In this paper, we present results of the first application of a variant of the leaf-bags method to assess structure of macroinvertebrate assemblages and leaf-litter breakdown in a Central Apennines (Italy) cold spring which was investigated from July 2016 to October 2016. Notwithstanding the stable conditions of almost all hydrological and physico-chemical parameters, we found significant temporal differences in (i) % of mass loss of poplar leaves (ii) number of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera taxa, (iii) shredder and predator densities. We demonstrate that detritus processing in cold springs may be faster than or as fast as in warmer streams/rivers. Shredders activity and biocoenotic interactions, rather than temperature and nutrients load, were the main drivers of the process. A routine application of the modified leaf-bags may contribute to expand our knowledge on detritus processing in cold springs and may help to predict impacts of climate warming on freshwater ecosystem functioning.

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