Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Curr Biol. 2021 Oct 11;31(19):R1208-R1214. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.015.
In between Earth's poles, ants exert impacts on other biota that are unmatched by most animal clades. Through their interactions with animals, plants, fungi and microbes, ants have cultivated - or succumbed to - relationships ranging from metabolic mutualisms to exploitation by social parasites. The diversity of these relationships implies that ants are keystone taxa in many habitats, directly or indirectly supporting a menagerie of other species. Yet, beyond these interactions is a less obvious but arguably as significant impact: through their collective ecological pressure, ants have imposed survivorship bias on the species that we observe inhabiting terrestrial environments. If life on land has passed through an ant-shaped selective filter, it is imperative we understand how these insects have sculpted ecological communities and are enmeshed within them. Here, we describe how ants have shaped biodiversity, and the often-devastating consequences of humanity's impact on these social insects.
在地球的两极之间，蚂蚁对其他生物群的影响是大多数动物类群无法比拟的。通过与动物、植物、真菌和微生物的相互作用，蚂蚁已经培育出——或者屈服于——从代谢共生到被社会寄生虫剥削的各种关系。这些关系的多样性意味着蚂蚁是许多栖息地的关键类群，直接或间接地支持着各种各样的其他物种。然而，除了这些相互作用之外，还有一个不太明显但可以说是同样重要的影响：通过它们的集体生态压力，蚂蚁对我们观察到的栖息在陆地环境中的物种施加了生存偏见。如果陆地上的生命已经通过了一个蚂蚁形状的选择过滤器，那么我们必须了解这些昆虫是如何塑造生态群落的，并深入了解它们是如何融入其中的。在这里，我们描述了蚂蚁是如何塑造生物多样性的，以及人类对这些社会性昆虫的影响所带来的往往是毁灭性的后果。
