Old‐field restoration improves habitat for ants in a semi‐arid landscape

Parkhurst, Tina; Standish, Rachel J.; Andersen, Alan N.; Prober, Suzanne M.

doi:10.1111/rec.13605

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Therefore, this genus represented woodlands and greater croplands. An association with trees of Camponotus corresponds with honeydew, a key dietary requirement for these ants (Parkhurst et al 2021). S1 Interestingly, two ant species, Iridomyrmex anceps, and Solenopsis geminata, predominated, with at least 61% of the frequency of occurrence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground-dwelling ant diversity in forests and agricultural land use at Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, Thailand

KHONGTHAWIE,

HASIN,

PONPINIJ

et al. 2023

Biodiversitas

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Abstract. Khongthawie S, Hasin S, Ponpinij S, Pinkaew N. 2023. Ground-dwelling ant diversity in forests and agricultural land use at Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, Thailand. Biodiversitas 24: 5937-5946. Ants play essential roles in terrestrial ecosystems, for example, soil engineers, seed dispersers, biological control agents, and indicators to monitor environmental stress and disturbance. This research aimed to study the diversity and community composition of ground-dwelling ants at Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve and its surrounding areas. Pitfall traps collected ground-dwelling ants from three habitat types: agricultural areas, dry dipterocarp forests, and dry evergreen forests; the environmental factor in this work was soil temperature. The results revealed that 109 ant species in 40 genera belonging to 8 subfamilies. Notably, the dry dipterocarp forest exhibited the highest ant diversity with 71 species, followed by the dry evergreen forest and agricultural area with 62 and 54 species, respectively. Overall, the present study reveals that soil temperature and vegetation significantly influenced ant species composition; ant species being more likely to be found in forests than in agricultural areas, and species classified as uncommon groups based on occurrence were the largest group in every study site. Besides, the information on ant species obtained from this work had the potential to be used as bioindicator species for ecosystem management and human impacts on forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground-dwelling ant diversity in forests and agricultural land use at Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, Thailand

KHONGTHAWIE,

HASIN,

PONPINIJ

et al. 2023

Biodiversitas

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“…Data (Parkhurst, 2021) are available from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) at https://doi.org/10.25901/azn7-r497.…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

P is for persistence: Soil phosphorus remains elevated for more than a decade after old field restoration

Parkhurst

Standish

Prober

2022

Ecological Applications

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Understanding constraints to ecological restoration on former agricultural land has become increasingly important due to agricultural land degradation in the developed world, and growing evidence for enduring agricultural legacies that limit native species recovery. In particular, the removal of native plant biomass and subsequent disturbance of soil properties through farming activities can alter soil ecosystem processes. Planting of native plant species is a common approach to restoring native vegetation on agricultural land and is assumed to benefit soil ecosystem processes, but the degree to which altered soil chemical processes recover is poorly documented. We investigated recovery of soil chemical properties after restoration in semiarid Western Australia, hypothesizing that elevated nutrient concentrations would gradually decline post planting, but available phosphorus (P) concentrations would remain higher than reference conditions. We used a space-for-time substitution approach, comparing 10 planted old field plots with matched fallow cropland and reference woodlands. Sampling on planted old fields and reference woodland plots was stratified into open patches and under tree canopy to account for consistent differences between these areas. The most prominent legacy of cropping was significantly and substantially higher concentrations of soil available P in fallow croplands and restored old fields compared with reference woodlands. Soil mineral nitrogen (N) concentrations were elevated in fallow croplands compared to open patches in reference woodlands (ammonium and nitrate) and under the tree canopy (ammonium). However, in restored old fields, mineral N concentrations were similar to woodland sites, providing evidence for amelioration over time. No significant differences in nutrient concentrations under tree canopies compared with open patches had developed in the planted old fields, despite a distinction between open patches and he under ttree canopy in reference woodlands for total N. We conclude that soil P legacies in old fields may inhibit the recolonization of native species that are sensitive to, or uncompetitive at, elevated P concentrations. To achieve full recovery, further research is required to test restoration practices aimed at reducing soil P concentrations to facilitate native plant establishment and persistence.

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“…Regarding functional diversity, the first approximation to discriminate functionality between species is grouping them into new or pre‐existing functional groups, often classified based on broad ecological, morphological, and physiological similarities (Cadotte et al 2009). Subsequently, one can measure the structure of the functional groups in different communities (García‐Martínez et al 2015, Parkhurst et al 2022) and thus evaluate how different functional groups respond to environmental changes. Phylogenetic diversity has been primarily used to quantify the total evolutionary history contained in local communities (Arnan et al 2018, Dröse et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat simplification affects functional group structure along with taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of temperate‐zone ant assemblages over a ten‐year period

Pérez‐Toledo,

Cuautle,

Castillo‐Guevara

et al. 2024

Oikos

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Biodiversity is declining at various scales due to habitat simplification. Nevertheless, there is scarce information on how the biotic and abiotic changes linked to simplification affect several diversity dimensions, such as taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversities. This study investigated whether transforming natural oak forests into induced grasslands affected species diversity, functional group structure, and phylogenetic diversity of ant assemblages inhabiting a temperate forest in central Mexico. We placed over 1000 pitfall traps in five sampling events covering a ten‐year period. We used Hill numbers to evaluate species diversity differences between vegetation types and patterns over time. Ant species were classified into stress‐related functional groups, which were analyzed for their association with vegetation types and changes to their proportional abundance over time. We calculated the standardized effect size of the mean nearest taxon distance to quantify the evolutionary history and test for non‐random patterns within vegetation types and sampling years. Species richness did not differ between vegetation types, yet grasslands showed greater diversity for the q = 1 and q = 2 orders. , We also found three ant species as bioindicators for each type of vegetation. Regarding functional structure, cold climate specialists were associated with oak forests. In contrast, generalist species were predominant in induced grasslands. Higher phylogenetic diversity with an overdispersed structure was associated with oak forest, whereas lower phylogenetic diversity and a clustered pattern were found in induced grassland. These results indicate that habitat simplification may not affect the number of ant species, but rather increases their relative abundance and reorganizes the functional and phylogenetic structure in the ecosystem, particularly shifting towards the dominance of evolutionary closely related species and broad‐stress‐tolerant groups. These results highlight the importance of integrating further dimensions of diversity to properly evaluate the reassembly dynamics after habitat simplification, and understand the mechanisms driving this biodiversity loss.

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Old‐field restoration improves habitat for ants in a semi‐arid landscape

Cited by 5 publications

References 57 publications

Ground-dwelling ant diversity in forests and agricultural land use at Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, Thailand

Ground-dwelling ant diversity in forests and agricultural land use at Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, Thailand

P is for persistence: Soil phosphorus remains elevated for more than a decade after old field restoration

Habitat simplification affects functional group structure along with taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of temperate‐zone ant assemblages over a ten‐year period

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