Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Biomas Tropicais, Univ Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Univ Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Neotrop Entomol. 2020 Dec;49(6):832-839. doi: 10.1007/s13744-020-00815-5. Epub 2020 Sep 9.
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.
目前，我们正面临着多年来人为干扰所导致的许多生态系统变化。由于其对植被结构和相关生物区系的不利影响，生境简化是人类衍生影响中最为突出的一种。在这里，我们评估了凋落物干扰和森林简化对热带地面觅食蚂蚁群落的影响。为此，我们测试了蚂蚁丰富度是否会因凋落物干扰和生境简化而受到负面影响。此外，我们还测试了凋落物干扰是否会影响资源发现和优势的时间，如果是这样，森林简化是否会加剧其影响。本研究发生在巴西东南部大西洋森林保护区里奥多塞州立公园。我们通过在单一的桃花心木林中移除落叶和表土层来模拟凋落物干扰，并在保存完好的大西洋森林中进行了实验。我们使用蛋白质和碳水化合物的混合诱饵在 12 个点对蚂蚁进行采样，每个森林类型各有一半。正如预期的那样，我们在保存完好且未受干扰的森林中发现了更高的丰富度。此外，在受干扰的单一栽培林中，资源发现速度更快，但在未受干扰的保存完好的森林中，诱饵优势更高。凋落物异质性似乎在决定蚂蚁分散和种内交流方面起着重要作用，因为我们观察到凋落物干扰的影响因森林简化而加剧。我们的研究结果强调了地面觅食蚂蚁作为干扰和栖息地质量的生物指标的效率。此外，我们的研究表明，不同类型的干扰如何协同作用，改变相关生物区系的组装。
