Effectiveness of genera as a higher-taxon substitute for species in ant biodiversity analyses is not affected by sampling technique

Souza, Jorge Luiz Pereira; Baccaro, Fabrício Beggiato; Pequeno, Pedro Aurélio Costa Lima; Franklin, Elizabeth; Magnusson, William E.

doi:10.1007/s10531-018-1607-x

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 88 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These environmental predictors are often associated with changes in ant assemblage structure (Vasconcelos et al, 2003;Oliveira et al, 2009, Gomes et al, 2018, and may have great practical importance, going beyond showing correlations between the numbers of taxonomic entities (Souza et al, 2016). Environmental predictors can be used to evaluate management decisions about sampling techniques employed (Souza et al, 2012(Souza et al, , 2018 or the use of surrogates as a shortcut to assessing species diversity (Souza et al, 2016) or to optimize ant research protocols. However, their lack of effect on ant fauna indicates that there is still no universal distribution pattern.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of epigeic and hypogeic ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in ombrophilous forests in the Brazilian Amazon

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the Amazon basin, ants are often associated with environmental or edaphic factors. However, these associations may vary between the epigeic and hypogeic strata. Here, we investigated differences in richness and composition of epigeic and hypogeic ant assemblages along an environmental gradient in the Brazilian Amazon. The four studied sites cover different topographic and soil characteristics. We sampled 25 plots of 250 m2 using 10 samples of epigeic pitfalls and 10 samples of hypogeic pitfalls installed at two depths (10 and 30 cm). The pitfalls remained in the fi eld for 48 hours. In the same plots, soil clay content and terrain altitude were also measured. We collected 219 species or morphospecies, of which 14 were exclusively hypogeics. We found higher local richness in the epigeic compared to hypogeic assemblages. We also found an interaction between clay content and strata for ant species composition. Overall, the species turnover was related to clay content, but the eff ect depended on the strata, with hypogeic fauna being more heterogeneous, compared with epigeic fauna. Despite the relationship between clay content and ant´s assemblage’s composition, we did not find strong environment predictors for both strata, which suggests that other factors may structure ant assemblages in these sites. This reinforces the need for studies to defi ne which environmental gradiente determines the distribution of Amazonian epigeic and hypogeic ants.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of epigeic and hypogeic ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in ombrophilous forests in the Brazilian Amazon

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, this method requires a great deal of effort and qualified labor, and the results greatly depend upon the skill of the researcher (TEXEIRA, 2012). The use of pitfall traps is widely used in arthropod collections, mainly in ecological fauna surveys, and is effective for collecting ants in the Amazon (SOUZA et al, 2018). Souza et al (2012), who compared three different methods for collecting ants, concluded that the use of combined techniques (manual and pitfall) obtains a greater species richness.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis of the current state of ant knowledge in the Brazilian Amazon: a review

Silva

Cajaíba

Silva

et al. 2021

RICA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In light of the expansion of deforestation in the Amazon and its importance for the balance and maintenance of essential conditions for human well-being, research is required to serve as a basis for decision-making regarding the preservation and recovery of Amazonian ecosystems. Considering the difficulty of studying the entire biodiversity of an ecosystem, research has been focused on key groups that can provide reliable and effective ecological information. Among the several existing species that are effective for such studies, ants deserve special attention because of their great ecological importance regarding the performance of key functions, in addition to being sensitive to environmental changes. To synthesize the information available in the literature, this paper presents a bibliographic review of the articles published on ants in the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 177 articles that covered a period of 52 years were found, with a significant increase in publications since the 2000s. Noticeably, there were a large number of studies based in the states of Amazonas and Pará, mainly near the capitals, which emphasizes the need to significantly expand the research collection areas. Most articles were published in the area of ecology, mainly concerning ecological interactions. Despite the advances in studies concerning Amazonian ants, there is still a lack of standardization regarding the sampling methods. In addition, there is a lack of studies that address the functional diversity of this group, which limits our understanding of the ecosystem services that are being lost owing to anthropogenic activities in natural ecosystems.

show abstract

“…In the Amazon Basin, despite the high environmental heterogeneity or the sampling technique used, the ant genera were effective in detecting species richness, composition and distribution patterns along topographic gradients (Souza et al . 2016, 2018). Our results add a prominent facet to this pattern, showing that genus‐level classification has consistent results over a century of modern ant taxonomy regardless of spatial resolution (plot or site) or database (reduced or complete).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the efficacy of higher‐taxon approach for ant species surveys to improve biodiversity inventories

Souza

Fernandes

Agosti³

et al. 2021

Animal Conservation

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the distribution of species is essential for the conservation and management of biodiversity. But the availability of this kind of information is still scarce for the most diverse regions. The higher-taxon approach (i.e. use of coarser taxonomic levels to represent species) as an easier and efficient method in representing species patterns can be one way to overcome these constraints. However, there is a general lack of information about the taxonomic stability of surrogate taxa across space and time. We investigated the predictive power and stability of taxonomic identification at the genus level as a predictor of ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) distribution throughout ~1000 km along the Amazon Basin, using taxonomy over the past 120 years. Using intervals of 10 years, from 1900 to 2020 we generated a genus and species matrix based on actual data from our sampling sites for each decade over a total of 120 years. We tested the predictive power of genera as a surrogate of species for approximating species-level richness, composition and distribution-based measures along topographic gradients at local (within site) and regional (between sites) scales. We detected a strong correlation between genera and ant species richness in the current database. There was also high congruence between genera and ant species composition over the time period studied. Genera were also efficient at detecting patterns of species distribution along topographic gradients. Despite changes in ant taxonomy over the past 120 years, our data indicate that such revisions did not affect the ability of ant genera to predict general patterns of ant species in our study area within the Amazon Basin. This reinforces the potential of genera to serve as surrogates for ant species elsewhere, which may significantly decrease the cost of surveying ants in environmental monitoring programs because of the time saved from identifying collected specimens to genus rather than species level.

show abstract

Effectiveness of genera as a higher-taxon substitute for species in ant biodiversity analyses is not affected by sampling technique

Cited by 17 publications

References 88 publications

Distribution of epigeic and hypogeic ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in ombrophilous forests in the Brazilian Amazon

Distribution of epigeic and hypogeic ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in ombrophilous forests in the Brazilian Amazon

Synthesis of the current state of ant knowledge in the Brazilian Amazon: a review

Assessing the efficacy of higher‐taxon approach for ant species surveys to improve biodiversity inventories

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About