Global change may make hostile – Higher ambient temperature and nitrogen availability increase ant aggression

Krapf, Patrick; Arthofer, Wolfgang; Ayasse, Manfred; Steiner, Florian M.; Schlick‐Steiner, Birgit C.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160443

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 113 publications

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“…This hypothesis is in line with findings from other ant species in which behavioral syndromes consist of coupled behaviors such as aggression, boldness, and exploratory Blight et al, 2016). Interestingly, T. alpestre is mainly peaceful in intercolonial interactions (Krapf et al, 2018(Krapf et al, , 2019, with some exceptions at the colony and/or population level (Krapf et al, 2023). We speculate that aggression can have an adaptive value (benefit-cost ratio): Workers behaving more aggressively may also be bolder and risk-prone compared with more peaceful workers.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…This could indicate that selection favors aggression and coupled behaviors and that selection may counteract the complete loss of aggressive behavior in T. alpestre. Nevertheless, aggression and its trade-offs are unlikely the baseline in this species as recently shown in a large-scale study across the European Alps, where colonies behaved predominantly peacefully (Krapf et al, 2023). Quantifying the specific costs of aggressive behavior and measuring their actual fitness consequences on different organizational levels will be one of the next steps herealso in light of recent findings that across the Alps, the level of aggression correlates with environmental conditions (Krapf et al, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…, 2018, 2019), with some exceptions at the colony and/or population level (Krapf et al. , 2023). We speculate that aggression can have an adaptive value (benefit–cost ratio): Workers behaving more aggressively may also be bolder and risk‐prone compared with more peaceful workers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, this species exhibits broad behavioral plasticity, including peaceful and aggressive behavior among colonies (Krapf et al. , 2019, 2023).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, workers of single-queened colonies (monogyny) are usually more aggressive toward non-nestmates while workers of multiple-queened colonies (polygyny) interact more peacefully with non-nestmates. However, in several species, workers of monogynous colonies also interact peacefully with non-nestmates (Steiner et al, 2007;Krapf et al, 2018Krapf et al, , 2023. Therefore, the intraspecific behavior likely differs within and across colonies as well as populations (Pinter-Wollman, 2012;Lai et al, 2015;Krapf et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Foraging valor linked with aggression: selection against completely abandoning aggression in the high‐elevation ant Tetramorium alpestre?

Contala,

Krapf,

Steiner

et al. 2023

Insect Science

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Aggression has multiple benefits and is often coupled with other behaviors (“behavioral syndromes”). The level of aggressiveness is influenced by an adaptive benefit–cost ratio suggesting that benefits should outweigh the costs of aggression. Here, we assess if several behaviors are coupled in two behaviorally different populations (aggressive, peaceful) of the high‐elevation ant Tetramorium alpestre. For three weeks, we collected colony fragments and analyzed boldness, exploring, foraging, and risk‐taking behaviors. We hypothesized that the aggressive population is bolder, more explorative and risk‐prone, and forages more food than the peaceful population. To test whether (a) the combination of experiments and parameters used yields a good setup, (b) populations differ behaviorally, and (c) populations display behavioral syndromes, we assessed (a) the frequency of repeatable behaviors of each experiment, (b) the behavioral means among populations, and (c) the behavioral repeatability, respectively. We found that (a) boldness and exploring were most repeatable and represent a good experimental setup, (b) the aggressive population was bolder and more explorative and risk‐prone than the peaceful population, (c) boldness and exploring behaviors were highly repeatable in both populations, thus corroborating our hypothesis. The results suggest that boldness, exploring, and risk‐taking but not foraging are presumably coupled with aggression and indicate the presence of behavioral syndromes in this ant. Under specific ecological conditions, aggression may be coupled with other behaviors and important for finding food. Aggression is probably adaptive in T. alpestre, possibly indicating that selection favors aggression at least partially, which may counteract the complete loss of intraspecific aggression.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, this species exhibits broad behavioral plasticity, including peaceful and aggressive behavior among colonies (Krapf et al. , 2019, 2023).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Foraging valor linked with aggression: selection against completely abandoning aggression in the high‐elevation ant Tetramorium alpestre?

Contala,

Krapf,

Steiner

et al. 2023

Insect Science

Self Cite

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Behavioural changes in the city: The common black garden ant defends aphids more aggressively in urban environments

Gaber,

Ruland,

Jeschke

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Urbanisation alters biodiversity patterns and threatens to disrupt mutualistic interactions. Aside from pollination, however, little is known about how mutualisms change in cities. Our study aimed to assess how urbanisation affects the protective mutualism between ants and aphids, investigating potential behavioural changes in mutualistic ants and their implications for aphids in urban environments. To do so, we studied the protective mutualism between the pink tansy aphid (Metopeurum fuscoviride) and the black garden ant (Lasius niger) along an urbanisation gradient in Berlin, Germany. In nine locations along this gradient, we measured aphid colony dynamics and proxies for parasitism, quantified the investment of ants in tending aphids and conducted behavioural assays to test the aggressiveness of ant responses to a simulated attack on the aphids. We found that aphid colonies flourished and were equally tended by ants across the urbanisation gradient, with a consistent positive density dependence between aphid and ant numbers. However, ants from more urbanised sites responded more aggressively to the simulated attack. Our findings suggest that this protective mutualism is not only maintained in the city, but that ants might even rely more on it and defend it more aggressively, as other food resources may become scarce and more unpredictable with urbanisation. We thereby provide unique insights into this type of mutualism in the city, further diversifying the growing body of work on mutualisms across urbanisation gradients.

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Short-time development of among-colony behaviour in a high-elevation ant

Krapf

Sedfaoui

Contala

et al. 2023

Behavioural Processes

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Global change may make hostile – Higher ambient temperature and nitrogen availability increase ant aggression

Cited by 7 publications

References 113 publications

Foraging valor linked with aggression: selection against completely abandoning aggression in the high‐elevation ant Tetramorium alpestre?

Foraging valor linked with aggression: selection against completely abandoning aggression in the high‐elevation ant Tetramorium alpestre?

Behavioural changes in the city: The common black garden ant defends aphids more aggressively in urban environments

Short-time development of among-colony behaviour in a high-elevation ant

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