Ant biodiversity and ecosystem services in bioenergy landscapes

Helms, Jackson A.; Ijelu, Selassie E.; Wills, Bill D.; Landis, Douglas A.; Haddad, Nick M.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2019.106780

Cited by 29 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…We likewise found no consistent differences in average worker body mass (see Section 2). While we did not measure colony sizes in our study, the number of pavement ant individuals captured per trap did not differ between corn and perennial treatments ( F 2,49 0.51, p > 0.6), suggesting no consistent variation in colony size (assuming equal foraging activity among habitats, Helms et al., 2020). Scale differences (plot sizes ranging from 0.12 to 17 hectares) or other spatial traits are similarly unlikely to account for our results, since even the smallest plots captured the entire foraging territories of the sampled pavement ant colonies, and ant isotopic niches were derived relative to baselines measured from plants co‐occurring within the same plots.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Competitive interactions might be a plausible explanation for our results if the optimal pavement ant diet were highly predatory. In this view, pavement ants are forced to eat more plant‐based resources in perennial habitats, which contain a richer assemblage of potentially competing ant species (Helms et al., 2020) that exclude them from animal prey. But pavement ants, like other generalists, prefer a mixed diet of animal protein and plant‐based carbohydrates (Penick et al., 2015; Stahlschmidt & Johnson, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The simplified food webs in corn, in contrast, are less arched and more linear, exemplified by the upward shift in 13 C enrichment in pavement ants, showing skewed reliance of the highest trophic levels on a single energy channel—carbon fixed through C4 photosynthesis. The simplified arthropod communities also result in less overall predation on crop pests in corn fields by ants and other predators, reducing the potential for natural pest regulation (Helms et al., 2020). The decrease in pest regulation occurs despite the predatory shift in pavement ants, which are just one of several ant species present (Helms et al., 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the BCSE and across similarly managed plots in the region, the richness of predatory and herbivorous arthropods increases from corn (~3 predatory families and ~3 herbivorous families per standardized sweep net sample) to switchgrass (~9 predatory, ~12 herbivorous) to prairie (~15 predatory, ~15 herbivorous; Werling et al., 2014). Within our three experiments, corn treatments contain up to 7 ant species, switchgrass treatments up to 13 species, and prairie treatments up to 17 species (Helms et al., 2020). Herbivorous insects in switchgrass and prairie treatments in these experiments also experience higher rates of mortality from predation (Helms et al., 2020), much of which is likely due to ants (Grieshop et al., 2012; Wills et al., 2019), suggesting that the richer treatments support longer food chains with more predatory activity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within our three experiments, corn treatments contain up to 7 ant species, switchgrass treatments up to 13 species, and prairie treatments up to 17 species (Helms et al., 2020). Herbivorous insects in switchgrass and prairie treatments in these experiments also experience higher rates of mortality from predation (Helms et al., 2020), much of which is likely due to ants (Grieshop et al., 2012; Wills et al., 2019), suggesting that the richer treatments support longer food chains with more predatory activity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants

Helms

Roeder

Ijelu

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Changes in trophic niche—the pathways through which an organism obtains energy and nutrients—are a fundamental way in which organisms respond to environmental conditions. But the capacity for species to alter their trophic niches in response to global change, and the ways they do so when able, remain largely unknown. Here we examine food webs in three long‐term and large‐scale experiments to test how resource availability and nutritional requirements interact to determine an organism's trophic niche in the context of one of the largest global trends in land use—the rise in bioenergy production. We use carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses to characterize arthropod food webs across three biofuel crops representing a gradient in plant resource richness (corn monocultures, fields dominated by native switchgrass and restored prairie), and to quantify changes in the trophic niche of a widespread generalist ant species across habitats. In doing so, we measure the effects of basal resource richness on food chain length, niche breadth and trophic position. We frame our results in the context of two hypotheses that explain variation in trophic niche—the niche variation hypothesis which emphasizes the importance of resource diversity and ecological opportunity, and the optimal diet hypothesis which emphasizes dietary constraints and the availability of optimal resources. Increasing plant richness lengthened food chains by 10%–20% compared to monocultures. Niche breadths of generalist ants did not vary with resource richness, suggesting they were limited by optimal diet requirements and constraints rather than by ecological opportunity. The ants instead responded to changes in plant richness by shifting their estimated trophic position. In resource‐poor monocultures, the ants were top predators, sharing a trophic position with predatory spiders. In resource‐rich environments, in contrast, the ants were omnivores, relying on a mix of animal prey and plant‐based resources. In addition to highlighting novel ecosystem impacts of alternate bioenergy landscapes, our results suggest that niche breadth and trophic diversification depend more on the presence of optimal resources than on ecological opportunity alone.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants

Helms

Roeder

Ijelu

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Effects of solar energy development on ants in the Mojave Desert

Grodsky,

Roeder,

Campbell

2023

Ecosphere

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Land‐use change from solar energy development may affect desert ecosystems and the soils, plants, and animals therein, yet our understanding of these interactions is nascent. With their ubiquity, criticality as ecosystem constituents, and sensitivity to environmental variation, ants may be useful study organisms for elucidating ecological effects of solar energy development in deserts. Our objectives were to disentangle the response of a desert ant community to solar energy development decisions and test the efficacy of ants as bioindicators at a solar power facility (392 MW) in the Mojave Desert, USA. We used pitfall traps to collect ants in treatments representing different solar energy development decisions, including variably intense site preparation practices: blading (i.e., bulldozing) and mowing, and establishment of undeveloped patches in solar fields, replicated across three power blocks comprising the facility and in undeveloped control sites surrounding the facility. We determined that ant abundance, species richness, Shannon Diversity Index, and functional richness were lower in bladed treatments than in all other treatments and controls. For most taxonomic and functional ant responses, we detected no difference between nonbladed treatments and controls; these results suggest that less intensive site preparation and increased spatial heterogeneity (i.e., undeveloped patches in solar fields) can reduce the negative effects of solar energy development on desert ants. However, our results indicate that ants may serve as useful bioindicators of the severity of anthropogenic disturbance from solar energy development in deserts, and indicator analysis signifies that solar energy infrastructure may negatively affect some species with high ecological value (e.g., harvester ants). Negative effects of solar energy development on ants can have significant implications for desert ecosystem function and integrity, but conservation‐minded solar facility design and construction may lead to avoidance of “bottom‐up” ecological ramifications of increased solar production during the renewable energy transition.

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Functional roles of ants in a temperate grassland

Ohwada

Yamawo

2021

Sci Nat

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Ant biodiversity and ecosystem services in bioenergy landscapes

Cited by 29 publications

References 43 publications

Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants

Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants

Effects of solar energy development on ants in the Mojave Desert

Functional roles of ants in a temperate grassland

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