A technique for the translocation of ant colonies and termite mounds to protect species and improve restoration efforts

King, Timothy J.; Balfour, Julia

doi:10.1111/csp2.154

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Active animal reintroduction is much less common in restoration than for plants, yet techniques exist for translocating ants during restoration (e.g. Box 1987; King & Balfour 2020). Although we are not aware of any such efforts in prairies, extending these approaches to prairie restoration projects would provide insights into the role of dispersal limitation for ant community assembly and may be particularly important for the establishment of ant species that are not typically found outside prairies, given the regional rarity of this system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant and plant diversity respond differently to seed‐based prairie restoration

Paraskevopoulos

Catano

Brudvig

2023

Restoration Ecology

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Recovering biodiversity is a common goal of restoration, yet outcomes for animal communities are highly variable. A major reason for this variability may be that active restoration efforts typically target plant communities, with the assumption that animal communities will passively recover in turn. However, this assumption remains largely unvalidated experimentally making it unclear how plant-focused restoration strategies influence animal communities. We evaluated how the diversity of seed mixes used to restore tallgrass prairies (a common plant-focused technique) influenced the recovery of ant community diversity and composition. Our study took place within a large-scale restoration experiment in southwest Michigan, where 12 former agricultural fields are being restored to tallgrass prairie by sowing seeds of prairie plant species native to our region. Half of each field was seeded with 12 prairie species and the other half with 72 prairie species. Sites restored with high diversity seed mixes increased plant species richness, but did not consistently influence ant richness or community composition. Instead, ant species richness and composition were related to an interaction between realized plant species richness (which was only partly structured by seeding treatments) and environmental structure. Specifically, ant richness increased more with higher realized plant richness when vegetation cover was lower and soil-surface temperatures were higher. Our findings illustrate how plant and animal communities can respond differently to plant-focused restoration efforts. Despite this, plant community restoration can structure animal community responses, in concert with environmental factors. Layering additional restoration strategies onto existing plant-focused approaches may further benefit biodiversity across taxa.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant and plant diversity respond differently to seed‐based prairie restoration

Paraskevopoulos

Catano

Brudvig

2023

Restoration Ecology

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“…If newer grasslands are far from source populations, existing ant‐hills may have to be imported to establish this ant in the pasture, for example by the mechanical transfer method suggested by King and Balfour (2020), which is likely to introduce their myrmecophilous aphids at the same time. This technique seems more likely to succeed in establishing some species than artificial methods to create microtopographical heterogeneity (Wagner et al., 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant‐hill heterogeneity and grassland management

King

2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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1. In many grasslands, some ants act as ecological engineers to produce long-lasting soil structures which have a considerable influence on the patterns and dynamics of plant, vertebrate and invertebrate species. They promote species richness and diversity. 2. The yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus, is the most abundant allogenic ecological engineer in grazed European grasslands, producing vegetated long-lasting mounds. It is so frequent and abundant that it must be regarded as a keystone species. Grassland restoration projects frequently attempt to reintroduce grasslands on abandoned arable fields. When this ant does not colonize naturally it should be introduced. It probably limits the abundance of grasses in a similar manner to hemi-parasitic plant species. 3. Ant-hills make a distinctive contribution to grassland heterogeneity. Measurements on mounds in a single grassland over 45 years document the dynamics of the same 200+ ant-hills in volume, surface area and basal area. As the mounds aged, they increased in size and took over a higher proportion of the grassland surface. Occupied mounds continued to grow, abandoned mounds decreased in volume and some disappeared entirely. 4. Four plant species favoured by the soil heaped by the ants were also monitored. Two woody perennials grew up through heaped soil and two short-lived species colonized its surface. As the mounds became occupied, some of these species significantly increased, and when they were abandoned some decreased. 5. In a grassland, the ant-hill population provides a fluctuating subset of plant and animal species which are characteristic of temporary habitats. This seems likely to reduce the rate of local extinctions which might otherwise result from fluctuations in grazing pressure. In conservation settings, ant-hills should be introduced or maintained where possible, and considered in planning grassland maintenance and management.

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A technique for the translocation of ant colonies and termite mounds to protect species and improve restoration efforts

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Ant and plant diversity respond differently to seed‐based prairie restoration

Ant and plant diversity respond differently to seed‐based prairie restoration

Ant‐hill heterogeneity and grassland management

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