Forest cover drives leaf litter ant diversity in primary rainforest remnants within human-modified tropical landscapes

Ahuatzin, Diana A.; Corro, Erick J.; Aguirre‐Jaimes, Armando; Valenzuela‐González, Jorge E.; Feitosa, Rodrigo M.; Ribeiro, Milton Cézar; Acosta, Juan Manuel; Coates‐Estrada, Rosamond; Dáttilo, Wesley

doi:10.1007/s10531-019-01712-z

Cited by 29 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…However, the seasonal variation in canopy cover was insufficient to affect forest-dependent ant species in terms of species richness and compositional changes. Our results for habitat generalist species also contrast with those found by Ahuatzin et al (2019). On the other hand, for dung beetles, da Silva et al (2019) found a positive relationship between habitat generalist species' abundance and richness and canopy cover only during the cold season.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…In our study, the amount of forest island in the landscape was positively correlated with other similar variables such as forest island size, largest patch index, total core area, and area-weighted mean core area index distribution (see Figure S1; see Table S2 for variable description), but also positively correlated with forest islands' understory density (Pearson's rho = 0.67). Forests with low tree density (or understory density) can favor the occurrence of specialized opportunistic ant species, which can result in high species richness (Ahuatzin et al 2019) but can also result in decreases in resource availability used by more sensitive forest-dependent species. Seasonal changes in resource availability and climatic conditions are known to influence ant foraging activity (Calazans et al 2020) and consequently the diversity and composition of assemblages through time (Nunes et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to their dependence on microclimate and local resources (Andersen et al 2002) and considering their extreme diversity and distribution (Levy 1995;Dunn et al 2007;Parr et al 2017), ants have been used as good model organisms for understanding the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation Cuissi et al 2015;Ahuatzin et al 2019). Moreover, ants are sensitive to environmental changes, especially changes in vegetation structure (Andersen 2019;) and forest cover (Ahuatzin et al 2019). Therefore, forest islands should harbor ant species that exhibit narrow environmental tolerances, constraining them to a forested environment (forest-dependent species) and species with broader environmental tolerances, which thrive in a higher diversity of habitats (habitat generalist species).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal Patterns of Ant Metacommunity in a Montane Forest Archipelago

et al. 2021

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Naturally fragmented landscapes are adequate systems for evaluating patterns and mechanisms that determine species distribution without confounding effects of anthropogenic fragmentation and habitat loss. We aimed to evaluate an ant metacommunity's spatiotemporal patterns in montane forest islands amid a grassland-dominated matrix. We assessed these patterns by deconstructing the ant metacommunity into forest-dependent and habitat generalist species. We sampled twice a year (summer and winter) over 2 years (2014 and 2015), using soil and arboreal pitfall traps, in fourteen forest islands (varying in size, shape, and connectivity) in the Espinhaço Range Biosphere Reserve, Brazil. We evaluated the relationship between ant species richness, composition (β-diversity), and predictor variables of forest island structure (canopy cover and understory density) and landscape structure (forest amount, number of forest islands, and shape). We sampled 99 ant species, 66.7% of which were classified as forest-dependent and 33.3% as habitat generalist species. We found that ant β-diversity was higher in space than in time, and that species composition variation in time (temporal β-diversity) differed between ant species groups. Both ant groups responded differently to forest island and landscape structure characteristics. Landscape structure seems to act as a spatial filter and the forest islands' local characteristics as an environmental filter, which jointly determine the local and regional diversity. We demonstrate the importance that forest archipelagos pose to ant metacommunity's structure and dynamics in montane tropical regions. Mountaintop conservation and management strategies must consider the forest island archipelago to maintain the biodiversity and the functioning of these systems.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal Patterns of Ant Metacommunity in a Montane Forest Archipelago

et al. 2021

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“…To test the effect of the land use pattern on the richness of species and trophic guilds, we performed multiple linear regressions, using the PCA axes as independent variables and the richness of species and that of trophic guilds as the dependent variables [54,55]. Subsequently, we performed a composition PCA [56] with an abundance of species and trophic guilds, thus identifying the pattern of distribution among the locations studied.…”

Section: Data Collectmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Land Use on the Richness and Composition of Species and Trophic Guilds of Bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) in the Urban Area of Altamira – PA

Ll¹

2021

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Bats play important ecosystem roles. Anthropogenic activities cause the decrease and loss of biological diversity and, consequently, the loss of these ecosystem services. One way of measuring local habitat conditions and relating the landscape to biodiversity. Our objective is to investigate how the bat community is influenced by this change in the landscape. Collections were carried out at five points and 76 individuals of 12 species are sampled. Although the points present a high variation in relation to land use, we did not observe any correlation between species richness and guilds with land use. However, the difference in the composition of the guilds is related to the variation in land use, in which 74% of the variation in the abundance of guilds is related to the different patterns of land use. At SENAI, even though it was the place with the greatest anthropic impact, it was the one with the greatest abundance of species, while the points Module two and Sítio Jaburu had the greatest abundance of guilds. This result corroborates the idea that ecosystem services are dependent on habitat maintenance, since the greater the heterogeneity the greater the difference in the composition of the trophic guilds.

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