Elevation and leaf litter interact in determining the structure of ant communities on a tropical mountain

Moses, Jimmy; Fayle, Tom M.; Novotný, Vojtěch; Klimeš, Petr

doi:10.1111/btp.12914

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 112 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A small deviation from that decreasing pattern was found in the PNG gradient, where we observed a mid-elevation peak in ant richness and occurrence at ~800 m a.s.l. Such a peak was also revealed by the recent studies of the leaf litter and arboreal ant communities along the same gradient in PNG and might be explained by a more suitable range of biotic and abiotic conditions at that elevation (Moses et al, 2021;Plowman et al, 2020). We cannot exclude the existence of a similar pattern in the other regions, as our sampling in Ecuador and Tanzania took place above 800 m a.s.l.…”

Section: Elevational Variation In Ant Activity and Its Interaction Wi...supporting

confidence: 61%

Nutrient use by tropical ant communities varies among three extensive elevational gradients: A cross‐continental comparison

Moses,

Peters,

Tiede

et al. 2023

Global Ecol Biogeogr

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AimMany studies demonstrate that climate limits invertebrates along tropical elevational gradients, but we have only a rudimentary understanding of the role of nutrient limitation and climatic seasonality. Here we examined the relationships between ant community structure, nutrient use and season along three undisturbed elevational gradients, each from a different continent.LocationEcuador (South America), Papua New Guinea (PNG: Oceania), Tanzania (Africa).Time period2011–2014.Major taxa studiedAnts.MethodsAlong each of the three gradients, we placed six distinct nutrient types (amino acid, sucrose, sucrose + amino acid, lipid, NaCl, H2O). In total, we distributed 2370 baits at 38 sites from 203 m to 3972 m. We used generalized linear models to test for the effects of elevation and season on ant species richness and activity and relative nutrient use. We also tested if changes in ant trophic guilds corresponded to changes in the use of particular nutrients.ResultsBoth species richness and activity decreased with elevation along each gradient. However, there were significant interaction effects among elevation, region and season, as ant activity in the dry season was higher in Ecuador and Tanzania but lower in PNG. Relative nutrient use varied among regions: ant preference for some nutrients changed with increasing elevation in Ecuador (decrease in lipid use) and Tanzania (decrease in amino acid and H2O use), while season affected nutrient use in PNG. There were common trends in trophic guilds along the three elevational gradients (e.g. proportional increase of predators), but these did not explain most of the nutrient use patterns.Main conclusionWhile the structure of ant communities changed similarly with elevation, both the seasonal and elevational effects on nutrient use by ants differed between continents. We argue that regional differences in climate and nutrient availability rather than ant functional composition shape nutrient use by ants.

show abstract

Section: Elevational Variation In Ant Activity and Its Interaction Wi...supporting

confidence: 61%

Nutrient use by tropical ant communities varies among three extensive elevational gradients: A cross‐continental comparison

Moses,

Peters,

Tiede

et al. 2023

Global Ecol Biogeogr

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research conducted on Mt. Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea, suggests that habitat filtering by vegetation type, and thus varying microhabitat complexity, can be an important driver of ground‐dwelling ant assemblages (Moses et al., 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaf litter weevil richness increases with elevation in a tropical–temperate transitional forest in El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, northeastern Mexico

Villaseñor‐Amador,

Janda,

Rosas‐Mejía

et al. 2024

Biotropica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We studied communities of leaf litter weevils along a 2000 m elevation gradient in El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, northeastern Mexico, an area where Nearctic and Neotropical biotas overlap. After achieving high inventory completeness (0.922 site sample coverage), we encountered 81 weevil morphospecies, of which 55 were known to be leaf litter specialists. The diversity of leaf litter weevils increased with elevation. Beta diversity across the elevational gradient was mostly explained by species turnover rather than nestedness. The interaction between forest structure (measured as median DBH of trees) and precipitation seasonality explained more than 20% of the variation in weevil species richness: weevil richness showed a negative relationship with tree DBH and was positively associated with low climate seasonality variation, characteristics of tropical montane cloud forests. In contrast with insect taxa such as ants and dung beetles, which attain their highest richness at lower elevations, leaf litter weevil richness peaked at 1600 m. These results suggest that most litter weevil species are highly associated with a particular elevation range and the overall pattern of richness increasing with elevation is probably the result of an association of many weevil species with tropical montane cloud forest habitats, which occur close to the top of the mountain.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

show abstract

“…At the elevational sites 3200 and 3700 m, we protected 20 saplings against vertebrates (VER) and kept 20 as control saplings (CON). There were no ant exclosures at these two sites as they are above the natural elevation range of ants (Colwell et al, 2016; Moses et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertebrates, but not ants, protect rainforest from herbivorous insects across elevations in Papua New Guinea

Sam

Jorge

Koane

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AimThe effects of insectivorous predators on herbivorous prey should have a cascading effect releasing herbivory pressure and favouring plant's biomass. However, it remains unclear whether different types of predators regulate herbivores to the same degree across seasons, and how their interactions affect lower trophic levels across elevations where predator communities differ significantly. Therefore, we investigated the impact of excluding flying vertebrate predators and ants (individually and in combination) on arthropods and herbivory across tropical seasons along a rainforest gradient spanning 3500 m a.s.l.LocationPapua New Guinea.TaxonMulti‐taxon.MethodsWe excluded predators from 560 saplings in two 6‐month‐long predator exclusion experiments, controlling for seasonality. Saplings were spread across eight sites, evenly spaced at 500 m elevational increments from 200 to 3700 m a.s.l. We measured change in the abundance of arthropods and herbivory damage and analysed them by linear and generalized linear mixed models.ResultsExclusion of flying vertebrate predators, but not ants, led to a significant increase in both arthropod density and herbivory damage. The density of arthropods increased significantly by 37% when flying vertebrates were excluded and by 33% when both flying vertebrates and ants were excluded. Both season and elevation significantly influenced this effect. Leaf damage increased significantly by 50% in exclosures of flying vertebrates alone and by 36% in combined exclosures of flying vertebrates and ants. In contrast, the exclusion of ants alone had no significant effect on arthropod density or leaf damage, which increased by 12% and 9%, respectively, although the effect decreased with increasing elevation.Main conclusionsThe overall effect of flying vertebrate predators on arthropod density and leaf damage remains consistently strong along the whole elevational gradient. In contrast, ant‐driven trophic cascades were detected only in lowland. Disappearance of insectivorous flying vertebrates could lead to substantial negative consequences for plants.

show abstract

Elevation and leaf litter interact in determining the structure of ant communities on a tropical mountain

Cited by 11 publications

References 112 publications

Nutrient use by tropical ant communities varies among three extensive elevational gradients: A cross‐continental comparison

Nutrient use by tropical ant communities varies among three extensive elevational gradients: A cross‐continental comparison

Leaf litter weevil richness increases with elevation in a tropical–temperate transitional forest in El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, northeastern Mexico

Vertebrates, but not ants, protect rainforest from herbivorous insects across elevations in Papua New Guinea

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About