Ant diversity and bio-indicators in land management of lac insect agroecosystem in Southwestern China

Abstract

The segregation of land-use intensity signifies an important change in land use in lac insect agroecosystem of Southwestern China. Farming conversions have led to a highly diversified landscape, with a mosaic made up of patches of land with different succession, from cultivated lands to closed forest. Our aim here is to characterize ant assemblages within this mosaic and identify key ant community metrics and species that can be used for bioindication. The habitats supported different level of ant species richness and abundance. For ants captured by pitfall trapping, the mean plot species richness in lac plantation was significantly higher than that in dry land (deforestation land-use). For ants captured by sweep netting and foliage shaking, there was significant difference among lac plantation, dry land and secondary forest occurring from afforestation of lac plantations, with lac plantation having greatest species richness. Ant species composition was different among the three land-use habitats. Seven of the fifteen most common species had statistically different abundances or occurrence within the three land-uses. Thirteen species had statistically significant different distributions among land-use habitats (among them three species were captured by sweep netting and foliage shaking). Ten species had statistically significant habitat associations determined by IndVal analysis. Among these ten species, five ant species were associated with secondary forest, two with lac plantation, and three with dry land. Lac plantation integrated with lac-production and farming is clearly an important land-use protecting ant diversity, and thus having great conservation potential. The use of ants as bio-indicators is a promising method for determining ecological responses to human land use in China.

Ground-Dwelling and Vegetation Ant Fauna in Southern Brazilian Grasslands

“…Species with values of 100 would mean perfect indication. Here a value of 70 or higher was considered sufficient for indication of a special relationship between a species and a habitat (Nakamura et al, 2007;Chen et al, 2011;Verdu et al, 2011). A matrix was arranged containing ant species composition in columns and the 18 sampling units (3 plots per site) in rows, in two different groups (vegetation and ground).…”

Relations between the design and management of Senegalese orchards and ant diversity and community composition

“…This was unlike those of type (4) in the locality of Notto, which grew fruits for the export market and displayed higher intensification levels (Ndiaye et al, 2012). The weak or non-existent technical interventions in type (1) and type (2) orchards were conductive to high leaf litter levels, no pesticide use and no fertilizer inputs that influenced ant diversity, ant richness or ant community structure, as reported by other studies demonstrating the sensitivity of ants to environmental conditions (Peck et al, 1998;New, 2000;Hernández-Ruiz and Castaño-Meneses, 2006;Torchote et al, 2010;Chen et al, 2011;Wiescher et al, 2012;Bernadou et al, 2013). For the group (A) orchards, one ecological factor able to influence the ant community was the vegetation stratum which determines the amount of leaf litter (Perfecto and Snelling, 1995;Ellison et al, 2002;Boulton et al, 2005), depending on whether or not there was orchard cleaning.…”

Butterfly Conservation in China: From Science to Action

“…Despite the debate, many studies illustrate the ecological benefits of reforestation. Reforestation not only increases forest cover, but also provides a better shelter for understory fauna; research has demonstrated higher species richness and abundance of ants, beetles, birds, and small mammals in reforested areas [ 174 , 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 ]. Similar studies in the megacity of Beijing also illustrate that the diversity birds and beetles in reforested areas is higher [ 182 , 183 , 184 ].…”