Rapid ant community reassembly in a <scp>N</scp>eotropical forest: Recovery dynamics and land‐use legacy

Hoenle, Philipp O.; Argoti, Adriana; Staab, Michael; Beeren, Christoph von; Blüthgen, Nico

doi:10.1002/eap.2559

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Rank transformation shifts the highest rank close to the oldest recovery plot (34 years). In a previous study based on the same dataset, we showed that the ant communities fully recovered within less than 30 years, supporting that these ranks depict a realistic monotonous trajectory without a huge step towards old growth (Hoenle et al, 2022a, 2022b).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…In a previous study based on the same data, Hoenle et al (2022a, 2022b) showed that the ant community recovers quickly and that species turnover during recovery is pronounced. Here, we confirm that this turnover occurs consistently across strata.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…All old-growth forests have, to the best of our knowledge, not experienced logging in recent times. Further details on plot selection are described in Hoenle et al (2022aHoenle et al ( , 2022b.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

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Stratification and recovery time jointly shape ant functional reassembly in a neotropical forest

Hoenle

Staab

Argoti

et al. 2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Microhabitat differentiation of species communities such as vertical stratification in tropical forests contributes to species coexistence and thus biodiversity. However, little is known about how the extent of stratification changes during forest recovery and influences community reassembly. Environmental filtering determines community reassembly in time (succession) and in space (stratification), hence functional and phylogenetic composition of species communities are highly dynamic. It is poorly understood if and how these two concurrent filters—forest recovery and stratification—interact. In a tropical forest chronosequence in Ecuador spanning 34 years of natural recovery, we investigated the recovery trajectory of ant communities in three overlapping strata (ground, leaf litter, lower tree trunk) by quantifying 13 traits, as well as the functional and phylogenetic diversity of the ants. We expected that functional and phylogenetic diversity would increase with recovery time and that each ant community within each stratum would show a distinct functional reassembly. We predicted that traits related to ant diet would show divergent trajectories reflecting an increase in niche differentiation with recovery time. On the other hand, traits related to the abiotic environment were predicted to show convergent trajectories due to a more similar microclimate across strata with increasing recovery age. Most of the functional traits and the phylogenetic diversity of the ants were clearly stratified, confirming previous findings. However, neither functional nor phylogenetic diversity increased with recovery time. Community‐weighted trait means had complex relationships to recovery time and the majority were shaped by a statistical interaction between recovery time and stratum, confirming our expectations. However, most trait trajectories converged among strata with increasing recovery time regardless of whether they were related to ant diet or environmental conditions. We confirm the hypothesized interaction among environmental filters during the functional reassembly in tropical forests. Communities in individual strata respond differently to recovery, and possible filter mechanisms likely arise from both abiotic (e.g. microclimate) and biotic (e.g. diet) conditions. Since vertical stratification is prevalent across animal and plant taxa, our results highlight the importance of stratum‐specific analysis in dynamic ecosystems and may generalize beyond ants.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Stratification and recovery time jointly shape ant functional reassembly in a neotropical forest

Hoenle

Staab

Argoti

et al. 2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…Additionally, hurricane winds can produce changes in species composition (Van Bloem et al., 2005). Forests, along with the community of organisms that live there (including ants, Hoenle et al., 2022), can take decades to recover, and recovery trajectories are not always predictable (Brokaw et al., 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant communities respond to a large‐scale disturbance along an elevational gradient in Puerto Rico, U.S.A.

O'Meara,

Yee

2024

Biotropica

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Large scale disturbances are known to significantly alter aspects of both species diversity and ecosystem function. In the Caribbean, hurricane events are a significant form of disturbance, the effects of which have been shown to alter food web function, especially in the terrestrial environment. Although hurricanes have been studied from a variety of their effects on ecosystems, there is little research on how these storms affect species along elevational gradients. Within terrestrial habitats, ants form the basis of many food webs, being both numerically dominant and functioning in a variety of roles within the food web. On September 20th, 2017 Hurricane Maria, a category 4 storm, crossed over the island of Puerto Rico, causing significant damage to both human and natural systems. We collected data on ant abundance and composition from 150 samples of leaf litter along a 700 m elevational gradient during June the year of and after the storm event. Ant abundance increased by 400% after the storm with many common ant species seeming to benefit, especially at lower elevations. There were subtle changes in ant richness, with declines generally after the storm, but yet again this response was dependent on elevation. This is one of the first studies to consider how terrestrial insect communities are affected by large hurricane events across elevations, and our results are in contrast to past work showing declines in ant abundance after such storms.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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“…Hoenle et al (2023) employ a primarily trait-based approach along a disturbance gradient rendered as recovery time. The authors undertook a tripartite sampling approach at field sites comprising current pastures and cacao plantations, former agricultural land abandoned 1-34 years before sampling, and old-growth forest with no known human disturbance (Hoenle et al, 2022). At each locality, three microhabitat subsamples were captured by well-defined collecting regimes across leaf litter, ground and tree trunk strata (Agosti et al, 2000).…”

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confidence: 99%

Community form, function and phylogenetic diversity respond differently across microhabitat and recovery gradients

Barden

2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Research Highlight: Hoenle, P. O., Staab, M., Donoso, D. A., Argoti, A., & Blüthgen, N. (2023). Stratification and recovery time jointly shape ant functional reassembly in a neotropical forest. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13896. Space, time and abiotic variation are primary axes across investigations of community ecology and disturbed ecosystems offer tractable systems for assessing their relative impact. While recovering forests can act as isolated case studies in understanding community assembly, it is not well understood how individual microhabitats respond to recovery and ultimately shape community attributes. Hoenle et al. (2023) leverage the ubiquity and microhabitat‐specific diversity of ants across a gradient from active agricultural sites to old‐growth forest and assess how recovery and stratification together shape communities. The authors find distinct stratification across phylogenetic, functional and trait diversity as forest recovery time increases, while also recovering unique recovery trajectories contingent on trait sampling. While stratified, phylogenetic and functional diversity did not increase along this recovery gradient. Ten out of 13 sampled traits were jointly influenced by both stratification and recovery time. In contrast to intuitive predictions, a majority of trait means converged throughout the recovery period. Results highlight the multifaceted nature of recovery‐based community assembly and the capacity of multidimensional sampling to uncover surprising patterns in ecologically diverse lineages.

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Rapid ant community reassembly in a Neotropical forest: Recovery dynamics and land‐use legacy

Cited by 15 publications

References 88 publications

Stratification and recovery time jointly shape ant functional reassembly in a neotropical forest

Stratification and recovery time jointly shape ant functional reassembly in a neotropical forest

Ant communities respond to a large‐scale disturbance along an elevational gradient in Puerto Rico, U.S.A.

Community form, function and phylogenetic diversity respond differently across microhabitat and recovery gradients

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