Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-6492
Authors: | Houadria, Mickal Menzel, Florian |
Title: | Digging deeper into the ecology of subterranean ants : diversity and niche partitioning across two continents |
Online publication date: | 12-Nov-2021 |
Year of first publication: | 2021 |
Language: | english |
Abstract: | Soil fauna is generally understudied compared to above-ground arthropods, and ants are no exception. Here, we compared a primary and a secondary forest each on two continents using four different sampling methods. Winkler sampling, pitfalls, and four types of above- and below-ground baits (dead, crushed insects; melezitose; living termites; living mealworms/grasshoppers) were applied on four plots (4 × 4 grid points) on each site. Although less diverse than Winkler samples and pitfalls, subterranean baits provided a remarkable ant community. Our baiting system provided a large dataset to systematically quantify strata and dietary specialisation in tropical rainforest ants. Compared to above-ground baits, 10–28% of the species at subterranean baits were overall more common (or unique to) below ground, indicating a fauna that was truly specialised to this stratum. Species turnover was particularly high in the primary forests, both concerning above-ground and subterranean baits and between grid points within a site. This suggests that secondary forests are more impoverished, especially concerning their subterranean fauna. Although subterranean ants rarely displayed specific preferences for a bait type, they were in general more specialised than above-ground ants; this was true for entire communities, but also for the same species if they foraged in both strata. |
DDC: | 570 Biowissenschaften 570 Life sciences |
Institution: | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz |
Department: | FB 10 Biologie |
Place: | Mainz |
ROR: | https://ror.org/023b0x485 |
DOI: | http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-6492 |
Version: | Published version |
Publication type: | Zeitschriftenaufsatz |
License: | CC BY |
Information on rights of use: | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Journal: | Diversity 13 2 |
Pages or article number: | 53 |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Publisher place: | Basel |
Issue date: | 2021 |
ISSN: | 1424-2818 |
Publisher URL: | https://doi.org/10.3390/d13020053 |
Publisher DOI: | 10.3390/d13020053 |
Appears in collections: | JGU-Publikationen |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | ||
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![]() | houadria_mickal-digging_deeper-20211112114458124.pdf | 1.82 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |