CO2 biogeochemical investigation and microbial characterization of red wood ant mounds in a Southern Europe montane forest

Balzani, Paride; Masoni, Alberto; Venturi, Stefanía; Frizzi, Filippo; Bambi, Marina; Fani, Renato; Nisi, Bárbara; Tassi, Franco; Vaselli, Orlando; Zaccaroni, Marco; Santini, Giacomo

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108536

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Ants belonging to the Formica rufa group, commonly known as red wood ants (RWAs), are widespread throughout the mountain and continental forests of Europe [1]. One of the most striking features shared by these cold-adapted species is the construction of large epigeous nest mounds that protect their inner chambers from severe winter conditions [2] and modify the chemical characteristics and nutrient concentration of the soil [3][4][5][6]. The materials used by workers to build such structures are highly variable, and include soil Insects 2022, 13,198 2 of 12 particles, small pebbles, resin granules, twigs, and other litter elements [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific Relationships and Nest Mound Shape Are Affected by Habitat Features in Introduced Populations of the Red Wood Ant Formica paralugubris

Frizzi

Masoni

Santedicola

et al. 2022

Insects

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Ants belonging to the Formica rufa group build large nest mounds, which aid their survival during severe winters. We investigated whether different environmental features of the habitats affected the nest mound shape and the population structure. We assessed the shape of all the nest mounds and mapped inter-nest trails connecting mounds for three imported populations of Formica paralugubris in three forest habitats: fir-dominated, beech-dominated, and a mixture of fir and beech. Single-nest mounds were averagely smaller and flatter in the beech-dominated forest, probably because of lighter building materials. Nonetheless, by summing the volumes of all interconnected nests, the size was similar among all three sites. In fir- and beech-dominated forests, large nests were also central in the networks, suggesting a central place foraging model with these nests as reference. We finally performed aggression tests, and found that aggressiveness was significantly higher among nests belonging to the same population than between populations. The results highlight the plasticity of the species to adapt nest and colony structure to different environments. Additionally, it appears that none of these populations is unicolonial, as observed in various alpine sites, there and the observed patterns of aggression are coherent with the ‘nasty neighbor’ effect.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific Relationships and Nest Mound Shape Are Affected by Habitat Features in Introduced Populations of the Red Wood Ant Formica paralugubris

Frizzi

Masoni

Santedicola

et al. 2022

Insects

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“…From the ecological point of view, RWA are keystone species, and they deeply impact the functioning of their forest ecosystems across multiple trophic levels [ 2 ]. These species influence the dynamics of arthropod communities through predation and competition [ 3 ], the structure of plant and lichen communities through their action on aphids, parasites and herbivores or propagule dispersion [ 4 , 5 ] and, ultimately, they affect nutrient cycling and soil functioning [ 6 , 7 ]. Despite the key role and abundance in most of their distribution range, the conservation status of this species is raising increasing concerns as there is evidence of local decline and even local extinction [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Molecular Diversity in Native and Introduced Populations of Red Wood Ant Formica paralugubris

Masoni

Coppi

Balzani

et al. 2022

Animals

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The Formica rufa group comprises several ant species which are collectively referred to as “red wood ants” and play key roles in boreal forest ecosystems, where they are ecologically dominant and greatly influence habitat dynamics. Owing to their intense predatory activity, some of these species are used as biocontrol agents against several forest insect pests and for this aim in Italy, nearly 6000 ant nests were introduced from their native areas in the Alps to several Appeninic sites during the last century. In this work, we assessed and compared the genetic variability and structure of native and introduced populations of F. paralugubris, thus evaluating the extent of genetic drift that may have occurred since the time of introduction, using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. PCR amplification with a fam_EcoRI-TAC/MseI-ATG primers combination produced a total of 147 scorable bands, with 17 identified as outlier loci. The genetic variation was higher in the introduced population compared to the native ones that, on the other hand, showed a higher diversity between nests. AMOVA results clearly pointed out that the overall genetic structure was dominated by among-worker variation, considering all populations, the Alpine vs. Apennine groups and the comparison among native and related introduced populations (all ranging between 77.84% and 79.84%). Genetic analyses unveiled the existence of six main different groups that do not entirely mirror their geographic subdivision, pointing towards a wide admixture between populations, but, at the same time, rapid diversification of some Apennine populations. Future studies based on high-throughput genomic methods are needed to obtain a thorough understanding of the effects of environmental pressure on the genetic structure and mating system of these populations.

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“…These introductions had varying success. Some populations are developing traits of invasiveness and affecting the native inver-tebrate fauna (Balzani et al, 2021b;Frizzi et al, 2018) and other taxa (Di Nuzzo et al, 2022).…”

Section: Italian Paradoxmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The importance of the focus on RWA protection extends beyond the conservation of these species per se. They are important ecosystem engineers and umbrella species (e.g., Balzani et al., 2021a ), so their conservation is relevant also for a wide range of other taxa. Moreover, RWAs are perfect flagship species, providing an important example for the establishment of a supranational scheme aimed at the conservation of an invertebrate group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and a call to action for protecting European red wood ants

Balzani

Dekoninck

Feldhaar

et al. 2022

Conservation Biology

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CO2 biogeochemical investigation and microbial characterization of red wood ant mounds in a Southern Europe montane forest

Cited by 6 publications

References 81 publications

Intraspecific Relationships and Nest Mound Shape Are Affected by Habitat Features in Introduced Populations of the Red Wood Ant Formica paralugubris

Intraspecific Relationships and Nest Mound Shape Are Affected by Habitat Features in Introduced Populations of the Red Wood Ant Formica paralugubris

Assessing Molecular Diversity in Native and Introduced Populations of Red Wood Ant Formica paralugubris

Challenges and a call to action for protecting European red wood ants

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