Temperature Influence on Species Co-Occurrence Patterns in Treefall Gap and Dense Forest Ant Communities in a Terra- Firme Forest of Central Amazon, Brazil

Abstract

In this study we evaluated the influence of temperature and species co-occurrence on the structure of an ant community of treefall gaps and surrounding dense forests in a terra-firme forest of Central Amazon, Brazil. For this, we collected ants at different hours, and at the time of each collection we measured the temperature of the environment. Even with the difference in the temperature variation and variation throughout the day, there was no difference in the richness and abundance of ants among the environments. Also, the ant species are distributed randomly and independently of one another in both studied environments in accordance with a null model (C-score). However, although not influenced by temperature, the ant composition of treefall gaps was different from the ant community of the surrounding dense forest. Possibly the composition and ant foraging in environments of treefall gaps and surrounding dense forests are not only influenced by temperature, but also by the interaction of this factor with the structural complexity of vegetation in terms of sites available for nesting and feeding, and other microclimatic factors. This generates a difference in ant composition of both environments. In addition, the structuring of ant community in tropical rain forests may actually be stochastic or neutral within each environment.

Ant Community in Neotropical Agrosystems: A Four-Year Study in Conventional and No-Tillage Systems

“…The relationship between the diversity of ant species and the structural complexity of the habitat was also evidenced in many studies (Lassau & Hochuli, 2004;Ribas et al, 2003;Dáttilo & Izzo, 2012; see also Rico-Gray & Oliveira, 2007).…”

Effect of dominant parabiotic Ant‐Garden ants on the understory and ground‐dwelling ant assemblage in the Amazon rainforest

“…Hence, the sampled abundance of the workers using the sample method may strongly be related to the proximity to the nest (Gotelli et al ., 2011), where the number of workers in a colony can greatly vary between species (Baccaro et al ., 2015). Due to the aforementioned reasons, a sample‐based measurement in terms of frequency is commonly used in ant studies (Ryder Wilkie et al ., 2010; Dáttilo & Izzo, 2012; Baccaro et al ., 2013). Based on the same principle, the variable “ frequency of parabiotic AG ants ” was also created.…”

“…In addition, ants and light incidence are known to be related (Dáttilo & Izzo, 2012). Thus, we measured the canopy openness across all sampling points with a concave spherical densiometer as a proxy to the relative availability of light input (Baudry et al, 2014).…”

“…Therefore, we decided to conduct the analyses per strata. Since the foraging activity of the parabiotic AG ants, and the ant assemblage, could be structured to the same causal factors (Dáttilo & Izzo, 2012; Vicente & Izzo, 2017), we added the canopy openness in all the analyses as an independent variable.…”

“…In such AGs, the two ant species share their nest, the foraging trail (known as parabiosis) (Swain, 1980), and plant as well as protect the mutualistic epiphytes that feed the ants and offer support to the nest (Orivel & Leroy, 2011). Both ant species are widely distributed in the Amazon and numerically dominant across all vertical strata of the vegetation and on the ground (Ryder‐Wilkie et al ., 2010; Dáttilo & Izzo, 2012; Souza et al ., 2016). Particularly, Ca.…”