Changes in ground-foraging ant assemblages along a disturbance gradient in a tropical agricultural landscape

Abstract

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The Potential Role of Scattered Trees for Ant Conservation in an Agriculturally Dominated Neotropical Landscape

“…Part of the difference between these studies and ours might be explained by the absence of scattered trees in pastures of the forest regions studied (Vasconcelos , Ottonetti et al . ). In addition, an important difference is that while in savannas most ground‐dwelling species nest in the soil (Campos et al .…”

“…Nevertheless, the relatively high ant diversity held by scattered trees in pastures was surprising, and this was especially true for the ground ant fauna which, as indicated by previous studies ( e.g ., Vasconcelos , Ottonetti et al . ), is known to be heavily affected by conversion of tropical forests into pastures. Part of the difference between these studies and ours might be explained by the absence of scattered trees in pastures of the forest regions studied (Vasconcelos , Ottonetti et al .…”

Exploring the effect of soil management intensity on taxonomic and functional diversity of ants in Mediterranean olive groves

“…However, the highly intensive soil management practices used in conventional olive groves may hinder the presence of many of these organisms. By contrast, ants are able to survive such intensive soil management as herbicide application in olive groves, which may affect the structure and dynamics of other arthropod assemblages (Chong et al ., ; Ottonetti et al ., ). Moreover, ants are considered semi‐sessile organisms (Vandermeer & Yitbarek, ) and so they might be expected to be useful for evaluating changes related to soil agricultural practices at the local scale.…”

Public Engagement Provides First Insights on Po Plain Ant Communities and Reveals the Ubiquity of the Cryptic Species Tetramorium immigrans (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

“…A more detailed investigation on the relationship between these ecological conditions and the composition of investigated ant communities is beyond the scope of the present paper. However, these indications once again highlight the potential of ant communities as bioindicators, still little explored in Italy [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”

“…From this perspective, monitoring ant communities can be critical to assess the impact of human activities on urban ecosystems, but few data are currently available, mainly referring to the American and Australian continents [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. In Italy, the role of ants as bioindicator is still poorly studied and the few researches were conducted in protected natural areas [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”