There has been an increase in the number of studies using seed removal by ants to evaluate ecosystem functioning; however, these studies encompassed varying time periods and used different types of seeds. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate differences in the proportion of seeds removed by ants in impacted and non-impacted sites in Brazilian savanna. Furthermore, we evaluated seed removal (1) during the morning and after a 24h period of seed exposure and (2) using natural and artificial seeds (manipulated resource to resemble natural seeds). The proportion of seeds removed was higher after the 24h exposure period (artificial seeds) regardless of site status, and more artificial seeds were removed than natural seeds. Our recommendations regarding sampling period depend on whether evaluating impacted or non-impacted sites. Although seed removal was greater after 24h in both impacted and non-impacted sites, we suggest that research evaluating the proportion of seeds removed in non-impacted sites should be performed only in the morning period to optimize the sampling time (removal of 60% during this period). When the aim is to compare non-impacted and impacted sites, we suggest evaluating after 24h of exposure, since the impacted sites experienced a higher proportion of seed removal during the afternoon and/or night time periods. Furthermore, we recommend the use of artificial seeds because they are easier to obtain and manipulate, and allow us to do comparisons between studies at different regions. We consider these findings an important first step towards standardizing future research on seed removal in Brazilian savannas by facilitating fieldwork and allowing comparisons to be made among different studies.

Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set, which is part of the ATLANTIC SERIES data papers, is a compilation of ant records from collections (18,713 records), unpublished data (29,651 records), and published sources (106,910 records; 1,059 references), including papers, theses, dissertations, and book chapters published from 1886 to 2020. In total, the data set contains 153,818 ant records from 7,636 study locations in the Atlantic Forest, representing 10 subfamilies, 99 genera, 1,114 ant species identified with updated taxonomic certainty, and 2,235 morphospecies codes. Our data set reflects the heterogeneity in ant records, which include ants sampled at the beginning of the taxonomic history of myrmecology (the 19th and 20th centuries) and more recent ant surveys designed to address specific questions in ecology and biology. The data set can be used by researchers to develop strategies to deal with different macroecological and region‐wide questions, focusing on assemblages, species occurrences, and distribution patterns. Furthermore, the data can be used to assess the consequences of changes in land use in the Atlantic Forest on different ecological processes. No copyright restrictions apply to the use of this data set, but we request that authors cite this data paper when using these data in publications or teaching events.

No abstract

Secondary diaspore removal on the ground is an important ecosystem process. In this process, solitary foraging ants with larger body sizes are more efficient because they may remove more diaspores, faster and carry them at greater distances. Therefore, we sought to test the effects of the sizes of the morphological traits of ants, removal strategy, and nest distance on secondary diaspore removal, testing hypotheses related to the efficiency of this process. We evaluated the removal of artificial diaspores by ants in 15 areas of Cerrado sensu stricto (tropical savanna), collecting data on diaspore removal strategy (solitary or group), nest distance, diaspore discovery time, diaspore removal time, and the number of diaspores removed. Larger ants tended to remove diaspores alone and remove diaspores faster than smaller ones. Ants that removed diaspores alone removed more diaspores than ants that removed diaspores in groups. However, we did not find a linear relationship between ant size and diaspore removal. This is likely due to a limitation on, or a preference by larger ants for removing larger diaspores, while the smaller diaspores may have hindered manipulation or been less attractive to larger ants. Thus, the removal strategy was the best predictor of efficient diaspore removal performance, where the solitary foraging ants discover and remove diaspores quickly and remove more diaspores, mainly from the closest nests to the sampling point. However, the benefits (or not) of removing more diaspores still need to be evaluated.

Diaspore removal by ants is a crucial stage for successful myrmecochory and can be directly or indirectly affected by natural or anthropic changes to environments. Among the consequences of such changes is variation in habitat attributes, such as changes in conditions and resources and, consequently, decreased diaspore removal or even the loss of this ecological function. The aim of this study was to assess whether canopy and litter cover affect diaspore removal by ants in the Cerrado. We considered canopy and litter cover as proxies of humidity and temperature and evaluated whether changes in these environmental conditions could affect diaspore removal by ants. We hypothesized that the greater the canopy and litter cover (higher humidity and lower temperature), the greater the number of diaspores removed by ants. We tested this hypothesis by establishing three classes of cover for each proxy: low, intermediate, and high. We placed artificial diaspores under each cover class and quantified the number of diaspores removed. We found that variation in canopy and litter cover did not affect the number of diaspores removed by ants in areas of cerrado sensu stricto. Variation in habitat attributes in natural environments were less important for diaspore removal than in modified areas. Our results indicate that understanding the processes and habitat atributes involved in diaspore removal by ants is important for conserving the Cerrado.