Wind-induced ventilation of the giant nests of the leaf-cutting ant Atta vollenweideri

Kleineidam, Christoph Johannes; Ernst, Roman; Roces, Flavio

doi:10.1007/s001140100235

Cited by 91 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These nests are composed of basic building modules and have reached a high degree of complexity in animal architecture (Theraulaz et al 2003). The different patterns are intimately linked to various functions (Turner 2000;Hansell 2005) such as thermoregulation (Seeley & Heinrich 1981;Jones & Oldroyd 2007), nest ventilation (Lü scher 1961; Kleineidam et al 2001), regulation of nest volume according to the colony size (Collins 1981;Tschinkel 2005;Josens & Soki in press), defence mechanisms (Deligne & Pasteels 1982), or even modulation of social interactions (Buhl et al 2004a,b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavated substrate modulates growth instability during nest building in ants

2010

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In social insects, the nests of the same species can show a large difference in size and shape. Despite these large variations, the nests share the same substructures, some appearing during nest growth. In ants, the interplay between nest size and digging activity leads to two successive morphological transitions from circular to branched shapes (budding along the perimeter of the circular cavity and tunnelling of the galleries). Like several other self-organized collective behaviours, this phenomenon, as well as the entire nest-digging process, is thought to be modulated by environmental properties. The present study investigates the effect of excavated substrate on the nest morphogenesis and the morphological transitions by using two materials with different cohesions. Here, we show that the two morphological transitions occur more frequently with a cohesive substrate than with a granular one: 96 per cent of cohesive experiments showed both transitions, whereas only 50 per cent did in granular experiments. We found that transitions and excavation cessation follow area -response thresholds: the shape transitions take place and the digging activity stops when the dug area reaches the corresponding threshold values. The shape transition thresholds are lower with the cohesive substrate and that of stopping digging is independent of nest shape and material. According to simulations, the experimental frequencies of transitions found their origin in the competition between transitions and activity cessation and in the difference between the transition threshold values of each substrate. Our results demonstrate how the substrate properties modulate the collective response and lead to various patterns. Considering the non-specific mechanisms at work, such effects of substrate coarseness have their counterparts in various collective behaviours, generating alternative patterns to colonize and exploit the environment.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavated substrate modulates growth instability during nest building in ants

2010

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“…As a result, both are more susceptible to collapse. The levee building behavior shared by the phylogenetically disparate members of this floodplain ant assemblage represents convergent evolution of a functionally important trait in response to a shared selective regime (e.g., Fowler, 1987;Kleineidam et al, 2001;Korb, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent evolution of levee building behavior among distantly related ant species in a floodplain ant assemblage

2011

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Flooding impacts ground nesting ant colonies by destroying the infrastructure housing and organizing societal function. Here, we report the convergent evolution in distantly related ant species of a behavioral trait that minimizes costs of flooding: the construction of earthen levees around nest entrances. In a South American floodplain ecosystem, we observed five ant species constructing prominent earthen berms encircling nest entrances shortly after large rainfall events. In four of these species, experimental flooding of nests demonstrated that earthen berms sufficed to prevent floodwaters from entering the below ground portions of the nest. Additional manipulations revealed that levee breaching caused, pronounced, and extended reductions in food collection for two distantly related species. Foraging was preempted by the allocation of workers to repair the internal structure of the nest. These findings represent convergent evolution of a functionally important nest construction behavior in response to comparable selective forces.

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“…Another mechanism which results in ventilation of the vadose zone, and has been explored mainly in connection with fractured media (Fukuda, 1955;Weeks, 1993Weeks, , 1994 and animal burrows (Vogel et al, 1973;Fenton & Whitford, 1978;Kleineidam et al, 2001), is related to wind flow above the ground surface. It follows naturally from the conservation of energy law that for any fluid (including gas) the balance between its pressure, velocity and elevation on a single stream line is described by the Bernoulli equation: (Schaschke, 1998),…”

Section: Wind Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Viscous entrainment is caused by the resistance of fluids to rapid shear rates and the consequent attraction of stagnant fluid by adjacent rapidly moving fluid. For surface exposed cavities this shear stress develops between the fast moving surface wind and the stagnant air in the cavity (Vogel et al, 1973;Kleineidam et al, 2001). In addition, several works (Kimball & Lemon, 1971, 1972Ishihara et al, 1992) have shown that turbulent wind above ground surface might result in turbulent diffusion of gases below ground surface, hence increasing the overall gas exchange rates.…”

Section: Wind Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%