Effects of Habitat Conversion on Ant Functional Groups: A Global Review

Abstract

Conversion of natural to anthropogenic environments affects biodiversity, and the understanding of these impacts may be improved by assessing how different functional groups respond to such land conversion. We studied land conversion impacts on ant functional groups, as ants are ecologically important and respond well to various environmental changes. We hypothesized that conversion of natural to anthropogenic environments modifies the composition of functional groups, fostering generalist and opportunistic groups over specialist ones, with more responses of this type in tropical than in temperate regions. We recovered 412 papers from ISI Web of Science, of which we selected 17 studies, published between 1993 and 2018, that addressed our study’s question. We assessed whether each functional group responded positively or negatively to conversion of natural habitat into anthropogenic land uses and used Monte Carlo tests to assess significance. Ants were affected by natural habitat conversion into monoculture and polyculture and by the conversion of savannas and of tropical and subtropical forests. Land conversion affected six of the 13 functional groups assessed here. In the temperate zone, cryptic species, predators, subordinate Camponotini, cold-climate specialists and tropical-climate specialists were impaired, whereas hot-climate specialists were favored. In the tropics, land conversion negatively impacted fungus-growers and predators. In both climatic zones, several functional groups, mainly those with broad ecological niches, did not respond to land conversion. Our results corroborate that land conversion effects vary among ant functional groups and indicate that the ant fauna of temperate ecosystems may be more susceptible than that of tropical regions.

Diversity and species composition of ants at coffee agroforestry systems in East Java, Indonesia: Effect of habitat condition and landscape composition

“…Susilawati and Indriati (2020) also found that Dolichoderus ants were the most abundant in coffee plantations in Indonesia. Dolichoderus ants were included in the dominant Dolichoderinae ant functional group because of their dominant behavior (Santos et al 2021). Meanwhile, Pheidole ants were the dominant ground ants in coffee plantations (Ennis and Philpott 2017).…”

“…Ants are very sensitive to environmental change. Agriculture intensification, human disturbance, and land conversion are known to affect ant diversity (Solar et al 2016;Rizali et al 2020;Santos et al 2021). Because of their sensitive and rapid responses, ants can become good indicators of change in the environment (Tiede et al 2017).…”

Chemical control of Acromyrmex lundi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in anthropic ecosystems

“…The conversion of natural and complex landscapes into ant anthropized environments, have led to the simplification, loss and fragmentation of native habitats. 1 In general, habitat disturbances such as urbanization affect ant communities directly, by reducing the availability of resources and removing colonies, and indirectly, through changes in habitat structure, nesting site availability, temperature and humidity. 2,3 The impacts of habitat conversion on fungus-growers probably occurred because some land uses, with intensive management, in addition to homogenizing the habitat, strongly affect ant fauna, 4,5 especially leaf-cutting ants.…”

“…The conversion of natural and complex landscapes into ant anthropized environments, have led to the simplification, loss and fragmentation of native habitats 1 . In general, habitat disturbances such as urbanization affect ant communities directly, by reducing the availability of resources and removing colonies, and indirectly, through changes in habitat structure, nesting site availability, temperature and humidity 2,3 .…”

Efeitos Da Fragmentação De Habitat Sobre Formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Em Paisagens Urbanas

“…No entanto, os efeitos da fragmentação de habitat sobre as formigas variam entre diferentes grupos funcionais (Santos et al 2021). As formigas arbóreas, por exemplo, são afetadas pelos efeitos da fragmentação (Lozano-Zambrano et al 2009, Rocha-Ortega & Coronel-Arellano 2019 enquanto que as formigas de solo são geralmente mais afetadas por características ambientais locais como, por exemplo, a porcentagem de cobertura do dossel e a composição e porcentagem de argila no solo (Debuse et al 2007, Rocha-Ortega & Coronel-Arellano 2019.…”