Is thirty-seven years sufficient for full return of the ant biota following restoration?

Majer, Jonathan; Heterick, Brian E.; Gohr, Thomas; Hughes, Elliot; Mounsher, L.; Grigg, A. H.

doi:10.1186/2192-1709-2-19

Cited by 25 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…This Iridomyrmex effect was driven by I. calvus, which successfully monopolised 72 resource baits and was present in all complexity treatments. Iridomyrmex calvus prefer cool and moist conditions that typify well-shaded forests (Majer et al, 2013). Similar abundance of I. calvus between grassland and shrubland arenas may have occurred because the grasslands in our study had a continuous herbaceous understorey layer that provided adequate shade and therefore cooler conditions for this species.…”

Section: Habitat Complexity Alters Resource Monopolisationmentioning

confidence: 51%

“…Monopolisation of food resources declines with increasing complexity as food resources are easier to find and dominate in simple environments, particularly for dominant ant species (Parr & Gibb, 2012). Iridomyrmex calvus prefer cool and moist conditions that typify well-shaded forests (Majer et al, 2013). The lack of a difference between shrubland and grassland could have resulted from the fact that the dominant Dolichoderinae genus Iridomyrmex monopolised 89% of the discovered food baits and had similar abundance in grassland and shrubland complexity arenas.…”

Section: Habitat Complexity Alters Resource Monopolisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil surface complexity has a larger effect on food exploitation by ants than a change from grassland to shrubland

Radnan

Gibb

Eldridge

2018

Ecological Entomology

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1. Changes in vegetation community composition, such as a transition from grassland to shrubland (woody encroachment), are associated with reductions in plant cover and increases in bare ground. Encroachment-driven changes in surface cover at small spatial scales can alter ant community assemblages by changing their foraging behaviour and their ability to locate and monopolise resources.2. Artificial arenas with three levels of complexity were used to examine changes in ant foraging efficiency, body size and ability to monopolise food. The three levels of complexity included a control (no substrate), low-complexity treatment (woody debris) and high-complexity treatment (leaf litter).3. No difference was found in ant species composition within the complexity arenas between grassland and shrubland, but ant functional groups 'generalised Myrmicinae' and 'subordinate Camponotini' were more abundant in grassland arenas, whereas 'opportunists' were more abundant in shrubland arenas. Ants took twice as long to find baits in high-complexity treatments, and 1.5 times as long in low-complexity treatments, than in control treatments, which were bare arenas with no substrate. Ant body size declined with increasing surface complexity, suggesting that larger ants are discouraged from foraging in complex habitats.4. There was also significantly greater monopolisation of the protein bait (tuna) in low-and high-complexity treatments, but there were no differences between tuna and carbohydrate (honey) in the control treatment. Consistently, no differences were found in ant behaviour between grasslands and shrublands.5. The present study shows that ants are more responsive to small-scale alterations in soil surface complexity than to changes in vegetation community composition. Changes in soil surface complexity select for ants based on body size, which in turn influences their foraging success. Changes in vegetation complexity at small spatial scales are therefore likely to influence ant behaviour and abundance of some functional groups, potentially having an effect on the many ecosystem functions carried out by ants.

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Section: Habitat Complexity Alters Resource Monopolisationmentioning

confidence: 51%

Section: Habitat Complexity Alters Resource Monopolisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil surface complexity has a larger effect on food exploitation by ants than a change from grassland to shrubland

Radnan

Gibb

Eldridge

2018

Ecological Entomology

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“…All too commonly, ecological restoration has been carried out with the assumption that successful plant community reassembly toward an idealized historic state will also result in faunal community reassembly (Majer 2009). Unfortunately, this so-called "field of dreams hypothesis" (Palmer et al 1997) has received limited empirical support, with community reassembly frequently occurring on alternative trajectories that do not converge toward the desired reference state, even after long periods of time (e.g., Majer et al 2013). Determining the underlying causes of this lack of convergence has been hampered by the lack of experimental manipulations of potential drivers of bottom-up diversity effects on higher-level consumers.…”

Section: Implications For Conservation and Restoration Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Woody plant richness does not influence invertebrate community reassembly trajectories in a tree diversity experiment

Yeeles

Lach

Hobbs

et al. 2017

Ecology

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Understanding the relationship between plant diversity and diversity at higher trophic levels is important from both conservation and restoration perspectives. Although there is strong evidence for bottom-up maintenance of biodiversity, this is based largely on studies of simplified grassland systems. Recently, studies in the TreeDivNet global network of tree diversity experiments have begun to test whether these findings are generalizable to more complex ecosystems, such as woodlands. We monitored invertebrate community reassembly over 5 yr of experimental woodland restoration at the TreeDivNet Ridgefield site in southwest Australia, testing the effects of woody plant species richness and herb-layer manipulation on invertebrate community structure and ant species composition. From 2010 to 2014, we sampled ground-dwelling invertebrates using pitfall traps in herbicide vs. no-herbicide subplots nested within each of 10 woody plant treatments varying in richness from zero (bare controls) to eight species, which produced a total of 211, 235 invertebrates, including 98, 979 ants belonging to 74 species. In mixed model analyses, the presence of woody plants was an important driver of faunal community reassembly (relative to bare control plots), but faunal responses to woody plant treatment combinations were idiosyncratic and unrelated to woody plant richness across treatments. We also found that a herbicide-induced reduction in herbaceous plant cover and richness had a positive effect on ant richness and caused more rapid convergence of invertebrate community composition toward the composition of a woodland reference site. These findings show that woody plant richness did not have direct positive effects on the diversity and community reassembly trajectories of higher trophic levels in our woodland system. From a management perspective, this suggests that even low-diversity restoration or carbon sequestration plantings can potentially lead to faunal reassembly outcomes that are comparable to more complex re-planting designs.

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“…Best practice for ecological restoration changes over time with increased knowledge and runs on the board. Ecologists are aware that spatial construction (the image of the landscape) does not necessarily predict ecological function (Doley and Audet 2013; Majer et al 2013). A neo-baroque landscape ecology may seem to some scientists to be an extreme move.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape architecture and novel ecosystems: ecological restoration in an expanded field

Sack

2013

Ecol Process

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Within the continuum of natural-to-novel ecosystems − i.e., from the 'pristine' to the greatly intervened − this paper emphasizes the role of design within highly modified ecosystems in areas of urbanization. It is argued that, as certain landscapes (particularly urbanized ones) can never be restored to original levels of historical ecological fidelity, they should be treated as both cultural and ecological landscapes. It is then proposed that these anthropogenic landscapes would be ready canvases for designed (or planned) novel ecosystems that could be inculcated with ecological function and systems delivery, yet having profound aesthetic manipulation. Based on this landscape architecture perspective, it is suggested that ecologists may not have fully explored cultural interventions in restoring landscapes, especially within the agency of design. A design strategy for the biological hotspot of Perth in southwestern Australia is then provided as a relevant example of how novel ecosystems can be designed. Without an acute and novel approach to modifying current development practices, Perth's biodiversity is on track for considerable deterioration. From this exploratory backdrop, it is elaborated how neo-baroque design strategies can be used for structuring ecological systems to create resilient and productive novel ecosystems grounded in a critical and autochthonous aesthetic of botanical complexity.

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Is thirty-seven years sufficient for full return of the ant biota following restoration?

Abstract: Introduction: An assessment of whether rehabilitated mine sites have resulted in natural or novel ecosystems requires monitoring over considerable periods of time or the use of space-for-time substitution (chronosequence) approaches.

Cited by 25 publications

References 17 publications

Soil surface complexity has a larger effect on food exploitation by ants than a change from grassland to shrubland

Soil surface complexity has a larger effect on food exploitation by ants than a change from grassland to shrubland

Woody plant richness does not influence invertebrate community reassembly trajectories in a tree diversity experiment

Landscape architecture and novel ecosystems: ecological restoration in an expanded field

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