Do lianas shape ant communities in an early successional tropical forest?

Abstract

Almost half of lowland tropical forests are at various stages of regeneration following deforestation or fragmentation. Changes in tree communities along successional gradients have predictable bottom‐up effects on consumers. Liana (woody vine) assemblages also change with succession, but their effects on animal succession remain unexplored. Here we used a large‐scale liana removal experiment across a forest successional chronosequence (7–31 years) to determine the importance of lianas to ant community structure. We conducted 1,088 surveys of ants foraging on and living in trees using tree trunk baiting and hand‐collecting techniques at 34 paired forest plots, half of which had all lianas removed. Ant species composition, β‐diversity, and species richness were not affected by liana removal; however, ant species co‐occurrence (the coexistence of two or more species in a single tree) was more frequent in control plots, where lianas were present, versus removal plots. Forest stand age had a larger effect on ant community structure than the presence of lianas. Mean ant species richness in a forest plot increased by ca. 10% with increasing forest age across the 31‐year chronosequence. Ant surveys from forest >20 years old included more canopy specialists and fewer ground‐nesting ant species versus those from forests <20 years old. Consequently, lianas had a minimal effect on arboreal ant communities in this early successional forest, where rapidly changing tree community structure was more important to ant species richness and composition.

Effects of canopy connectivity on the arboreal ant community in coffee shade trees

“…In the case of polydomous ants, connectivity may also have facilitated the founding of new nests in favorable sites in adjacent trees. At least two of the ant species counted in timed rope observations (Table S6), C. basalis and A. sericeasur , are polydomous species with large colonies and networks of nests within the canopy (Adams, Gora et al, 2019; Gordon, 2012; Yanoviak & Schnitzer, 2013). At the transect at which our connecting rope was close to the nest, A. sericeasur appeared to use the rope to establish a new nest in the adjacent, newly‐connected tree, with heavy traffic in between the old and new nests.…”

Effect of forest disturbance on ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) diversity in a Mexican tropical dry forest canopy

“…Ant species were classified based on their nesting habits (ground, arboreal, or both), according to the specialised literature and web pages (Adams et al ., 2019b; AntWeb, 2020; AntWiki, 2020). Collected material was deposited in the Entomological Collections of the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (CIUM) and the Universidad de Guadalajara (CZUG).…”