Resilience to fire and climate seasonality drive the temporal dynamics of ant-plant interactions in a fire-prone ecosystem

Costa, Fernanda Vieira da; Blüthgen, Nico; Viana‐Júnior, Arleu Barbosa; Guerra, Tadeu J.; Spirito, Laura Di; Neves, Frederico S.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.05.001

Cited by 25 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…We observed that litter disturbance had a negative effect on ant richness in both forest types. Our results corroborate other findings wherein ant communities were negatively affected by anthropogenic impacts that result in habitat simplification, such as fire (Costa et al 2018), fragmentation (Underwood & Fisher 2006), urbanization (Oliveira et al 2017), and litter clearance (Paolucci et al 2010). Several studies have suggested that litter heterogeneity is determinant for ants that forage on tropical forest ground (e.g., Brühl et al 2003, Pacheco et al 2009, as it represents greater opportunities for nesting sites and higher resource availability (e.g., prey), enabling a more diverse fauna (Byrne 1994, Fernandes et al 2019.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

The Importance of Forest Simplification and Litter Disturbance in Defining the Assembly of Ground-Foraging Ants

et al. 2020

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Currently, we are facing many ecosystem changes derived from years of anthropogenic disturbances. Habitat simplification stands out among human-derived impacts, due to its detrimental effects on vegetation structure and associated biota. Here, we assessed the effects of litter disturbance and forest simplification on a tropical ground-foraging ant community. To do that, we tested whether ant richness will be negatively affected by litter disturbance and habitat simplification. Additionally, we tested whether litter disturbance affects the time of resource discovery and dominance, and if so, whether its effects are intensified by forest simplification. This study occurred at Rio Doce State Park, a preserved area of Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil. We experimentally simulated litter disturbance by removing the leaf litter and superficial soil layer in a mahogany monoculture forest and preserved Atlantic Forest. We sampled ants using paired-mixed baits of protein and carbohydrate in 12 points, half of them in each forest type. As expected, we found higher richness in the preserved and non-disturbed forest. Moreover, resource discovery was faster in disturbed monoculture, but bait dominance was higher in the undisturbed preserved forest. Litter heterogeneity seems to play an important role in determining ant dispersion and intra-specific communication, as we observed that litter disturbance impacts were strengthened by forest simplification. Our results highlight the efficiency of ground-foraging ants as bioindicators of disturbance and habitat quality. Moreover, our study indicates how distinct types of disturbances can act synergistically, changing the assembly of associated biota.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

The Importance of Forest Simplification and Litter Disturbance in Defining the Assembly of Ground-Foraging Ants

et al. 2020

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“…In some circumstances the resilience of certain plants may make all the difference in reducing the impacts of forest fires, namely in the new context of climate change [19,20]. This question should be considered by the several agroforestry stakeholders, namely by policymakers, to design adjusted plans for forest management.…”

Section: Literature Insightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

Martinho

2019

Sustainability

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Recent forest fire activity has resulted in several consequences across different geographic locations where both natural and socioeconomic conditions have promoted a favorable context for what has happened in recent years in a number of countries, including Portugal. As a result, it would be interesting to examine the implications of forest fire activity in terms of the socioeconomic dynamics and performance of the agroforestry sectors in the context of those verified in the Portuguese municipalities. For this purpose, data from Statistics on Portugal was considered for output and employment from the business sector related to agricultural and forestry activities, which were disaggregated at the municipality level, for the period 2008-2015. Data for the burnt area was also considered in order to assess the impact of forest fires. The data was analyzed using econometric models in panel data based on the Keynesian (Kaldor laws) and convergence (conditional approaches) theories. The results from the Keynesian approaches show that there are signs of increasing returns to scale in the Portuguese agroforestry sectors, where the burnt area increased employment growth in agricultural activities and decreased employment in the forestry sector. Forest fires seem to create favorable conditions for agricultural employment in Portuguese municipalities and the inverse occurs for forestry employment. Additionally, some signs of convergence were identified between Portuguese municipalities for agroforestry output and employment, as well for the burnt areas. However, signs of divergence (increasing returns to scale) from the Keynesian models seem to be stronger. On the other hand, the evidence of beta convergence for the burnt areas are stronger than those verified for other variables, showing that the impacts from forest fires are more transversal across the whole country (however not enough to have sigma convergence).Sustainability 2019, 11, 374 2 of 14 modelling, for example, brings new approaches for forest fire assessment, namely because it allows us to link several dimensions related with these multidisciplinary realities [2]. Good assessments of the impacts of forest fires are important contributions to the design of adjusted agroforestry policies, specifically in order to direct support to the most negatively affected activities. Policy instruments and related legislation are determinant tools for reducing the negative impacts of forest fires [3].Indeed, in international terms, agroforestry land inside and outside of Europe continues to burn, in some cases with more severity and frequency, namely due to climate change and global warming. On the other hand, governments and related institutions create (and disclose) more regulations than in the past [4]. Maybe, new approaches are needed, where new technologies may play a determinant role. Multidisciplinary approaches could bring interesting contributions, for instance, economic analysis could transmit valuable insights.These undesirable forest fires have always brought neg...

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“…However, most studies on patterns of species and community distributions in mountains focus on the spatial rather than on the temporal dimension (e.g., Fernandes et al, 2016;Lasmar et al, 2020). Yet, the temporal variation in climatic conditions can be just as strong as the spatial variation, regulating plant resource availability and patterns of animal foraging in seasonal tropical systems (e.g., Basset et al, 2015;Costa et al, 2018;Novais et al, 2019). While the temporal variation in climatic conditions that is driven by seasonal variation could be similar to the variation found at different elevations in mountains (Rocha et al, 2016), it is less clear which drivers shape temporal β-diversity of communities on mountains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Temporal Beta Diversity in an Ant Metacommunity, With Increasing Temporal Functional Replacement Along the Elevational Gradient

et al. 2020

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Resilience to fire and climate seasonality drive the temporal dynamics of ant-plant interactions in a fire-prone ecosystem

Cited by 25 publications

References 48 publications

The Importance of Forest Simplification and Litter Disturbance in Defining the Assembly of Ground-Foraging Ants

The Importance of Forest Simplification and Litter Disturbance in Defining the Assembly of Ground-Foraging Ants

Socioeconomic Impacts of Forest Fires upon Portugal: An Analysis for the Agricultural and Forestry Sectors

High Temporal Beta Diversity in an Ant Metacommunity, With Increasing Temporal Functional Replacement Along the Elevational Gradient

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