“…Thus, we only explored temporal patterns by frequency (%) after this year ( figure 2 ). To access the non-taxonomic information from the studies published from 1970 to 2020, including those not considered here, see the supporting information in [ 30 ]. Figure 1 Number of ant diversity studies in Brazil published in the last 50 years recovered in our systematic literature review.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We considered ‘ant diversity’ in a broad sense, including myrmecological surveys; checklists of ants in ecoregions, conservation unities and geopolitical provinces (states and municipalities); ecological interactions; behaviour biology; ecological and evolutionary aspects of ant assemblages (population, community, and conservation ecology); and studies on ant sampling techniques. Including the Brazilian biomes in the search terms was planned to meet the criteria of a previous comprehensive effort to describe the profile of ant diversity studies in Brazil (see [ 30 ]).…”
Research findings in natural sciences need to be comparable and reproducible to effectively improve our understanding of ecological and behavioural patterns. In this sense, knowledge frontiers in biodiversity studies are directly tied to taxonomic research, especially in species-rich tropical regions. Here we analysed the taxonomic information available in 470 studies on Brazilian ant diversity published in the last 50 years. We aimed to quantify the proportion of studies that provide enough data to validate taxonomic identification, explore the frequency of studies that properly acknowledge their taxonomic background, and investigate the primary resources for ant identification in Brazil. We found that most studies on Brazilian ant diversity (73.6%) explicitly stated the methods used to identify their specimens. However, the proportion of papers that provide complete data for the repository institutions and vouchered specimens is vanishingly small (5.8%). Additionally, only 40.0% of the studies consistently presented taxon authorities and years of description, rarely referencing taxonomic publications correctly. In turn, the number of specialists and institutions consulted for ant identification in Brazil has increased in the last years, along with the number of studies that explicitly provide their taxonomic procedures for ant identification. Our findings highlight a shift between generations regarding the recognition of taxonomy as fundamental science, deepening our understanding of biodiversity.
“…Thus, we only explored temporal patterns by frequency (%) after this year ( figure 2 ). To access the non-taxonomic information from the studies published from 1970 to 2020, including those not considered here, see the supporting information in [ 30 ]. Figure 1 Number of ant diversity studies in Brazil published in the last 50 years recovered in our systematic literature review.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We considered ‘ant diversity’ in a broad sense, including myrmecological surveys; checklists of ants in ecoregions, conservation unities and geopolitical provinces (states and municipalities); ecological interactions; behaviour biology; ecological and evolutionary aspects of ant assemblages (population, community, and conservation ecology); and studies on ant sampling techniques. Including the Brazilian biomes in the search terms was planned to meet the criteria of a previous comprehensive effort to describe the profile of ant diversity studies in Brazil (see [ 30 ]).…”
Research findings in natural sciences need to be comparable and reproducible to effectively improve our understanding of ecological and behavioural patterns. In this sense, knowledge frontiers in biodiversity studies are directly tied to taxonomic research, especially in species-rich tropical regions. Here we analysed the taxonomic information available in 470 studies on Brazilian ant diversity published in the last 50 years. We aimed to quantify the proportion of studies that provide enough data to validate taxonomic identification, explore the frequency of studies that properly acknowledge their taxonomic background, and investigate the primary resources for ant identification in Brazil. We found that most studies on Brazilian ant diversity (73.6%) explicitly stated the methods used to identify their specimens. However, the proportion of papers that provide complete data for the repository institutions and vouchered specimens is vanishingly small (5.8%). Additionally, only 40.0% of the studies consistently presented taxon authorities and years of description, rarely referencing taxonomic publications correctly. In turn, the number of specialists and institutions consulted for ant identification in Brazil has increased in the last years, along with the number of studies that explicitly provide their taxonomic procedures for ant identification. Our findings highlight a shift between generations regarding the recognition of taxonomy as fundamental science, deepening our understanding of biodiversity.
“…We searched for papers regarding ant diversity and seasonality in Brazilian biomes using the database from the Ants of Brazil Project (Projeto Formigas do Brasil, http://www.formi gasdo brasil.com) (Feitosa et al, 2022;Schmidt et al, 2022) and the search engines Web of Science, SciELO, and Scopus. Our search encompassed papers from 1945 to 2020.…”
Tropical studies traditionally describe insect diversity variation throughout the year. The temporally structured responses of insect assemblages to climate seasonality vary across ecosystems due to gradients of resource availability and limiting ecological factors. These idiosyncratic responses might be particularly true across the vast geographical range of the Brazilian territory, including various environments that harbor one of the most diverse ant faunas worldwide. This study addressed the relationship between ant diversity and climatic seasonality, performing a quantitative review of the published data on ant diversity collected in Brazil. We investigated the seasonality effect on ant abundance and richness described in the literature in 47 papers published between 2000 and 2018. These studies were developed mainly in the Atlantic Forest biome and collected ants with pitfall traps on the soil/litter stratum. We initially carried out a vote‐counting procedure by comparing the number of significant results describing seasonal differences in the ant assemblage. We found that most papers described a similar pattern of ant abundance, richness, and species composition between seasons. However, when we performed a meta‐analysis, we observed a clear pattern of higher ant abundance and richness in the wet/summer season compared with the dry/winter season. Our meta‐analysis reveals that the ant diversity decreases in the dry season, strongly in the Cerrado biome. Additionally, we point out differences in the sampling effort across biomes, indicating the need for further investments in studies focused on temporal diversity patterns, including seasonal effects, on the insect assemblage in biomes less investigated so far.
Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.
“…If, on the one hand, studies in the Cerrado are growing increasingly (Borges et al, 2015), on the other hand, we know very little about the Caatinga (Lewinsohn et al, 2005;Ganem et al, 2017), a pattern that repeats itself if we consider only ants (Divieso et al, 2020). Thus, more studies on non-forest biomes are essential for discovering and describing new species, their interactions and ecological functions in Brazil, a center of neotropical ant diversity (Fernández et al, 2021;Schmidt et al, 2022).…”
Section: Idmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Another 41 genera had species not identified at a specific level. Although Minas Gerais is one of the best-sampled states concerning ants (Schmidt et al, 2022;Silva et al, 2022), further efforts and investments are needed to identify and describe possible new species (Camacho & Vasconcelos, 2015).…”
Section: Profile Of Ant Species and Morphospecies Diversitymentioning
Habitat transformation and species loss bring enormous environmental damage, whereas establishing protected areas promotes more sustainable use of environmental resources through biodiversity conservation. In this study, we aimed to point out gaps in ant knowledge and provide a species checklist that contributes to biodiversity conservation in the transition areas between Cerrado and Caatinga biomes, constantly threatened by land use changes. This checklist integrates data from previous studies developed at “Área de Proteção Ambiental do Rio Pandeiros” (APA Pandeiros), Minas Gerais, Brazil, involving ant diversity and their contribution to ecological processes accessed and described in the studies. We showed and discussed how authors managed and provided information regarding methodologies and habitats sampled. We listed 143 ant species formally named. Pheidole, Camponotus and Cephalotes were the most speciose genera, with more than ten species each. Among ants involved in ecological processes, 40 are linked to diaspore removal (part of seed dispersal) and 30 to carcass interaction (part of the decomposition process). Unbaited pitfall traps, epigeic stratum and Cerrado sensu stricto, were the top sampling method, stratum, and habitats among ant studies. We presented proposals for the best management and integration of data from surveys in APA Pandeiros (e.g., sharing the results of the studies with the APA managers, creating a database, and the local community). These surveys are fundamental for understanding biodiversity and ecological processes and provide valuable information to conservation biology. Therefore, neglecting the importance of the Cerrado-Caatinga transition can lead to irreparable setbacks for scientific knowledge and biodiversity.
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