Positive Association Between Densities of the Red Imported Fire Ant,<i>Solenopsis invicta</i>(Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and Generalized Ant and Arthropod Diversity

Morrison, Lloyd W.; Porter, Sanford D.

doi:10.1603/0046-225x-32.3.548

Cited by 47 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Both these explanations are supported by the nearly significant and significant positive correlations between the number of native and rare native ant species and the number of non-native species. Several recent studies (Levine andD'Antonio 1999, Stohlgren et al 1999) have also recorded a positive correlation between species richness of native and non-native species, including a study of ants in north-central Florida (Morrison and Porter 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Impacts of Sprawl on Biodiversity: the Ant Fauna of the Lower Florida Keys

Forys¹,

Allen²

2005

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Sprawling development can affect species composition by increasing the rate of invasion by non-native species, and decreasing the persistence of native species. This paper briefly reviews the scientific literature on the impacts of sprawl on biological diversity, with specific emphasis on the influence of sprawl on non-native species richness. We then explore the relationship between sprawl and biodiversity using a data set of ant species collected from 46 habitat patches located in the increasingly suburbanized Florida Keys, USA. We quantified sprawl as the proximity of roads and amount of development surrounding a habitat patch. Using bait transects, we identified 24 native and 18 non-native species of ants. Neither the overall number of native species nor the number of rare native species were significantly affected by the amount of development or proximity to roads, however, the number of non-native species was significantly correlated with the amount of development. Surprisingly, the number of native species and rare native species was significantly positively correlated with the number of non-native species. Areas that supported many species of native ants also supported a diverse non-native ant fauna, and the species distribution was highly nested. Currently, the native ant fauna of the Florida Keys does not appear to be dramatically influenced by sprawl, however, if development increases, the number of non-native ants may increase, and many of these species have been documented as decreasing native ant diversity. If development plateaus, there is evidence that the native ant fauna could persist and could decrease non-native species richness through competition or predation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

The Impacts of Sprawl on Biodiversity: the Ant Fauna of the Lower Florida Keys

Forys¹,

Allen²

2005

E&S

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“…Conversely, a total of 11 species coexisted with the yellow crazy ant and six of these were only found in yellow crazy ant-invaded sites. Studies on S. invicta invaded ant communities report up to 37 coexisting ant species (Helms and Vinson, 2001;Morrison and Porter, 2003), and positive associations between species richness of ants and other arthropods, Table 2. Mean abundance of each ant species present at each bait type in plots invaded and uninvaded by A. gracilipes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results of the log-linear analyses are presented in Table 3. An asterisk indicates the species was found in both invaded and uninvaded plots (Morrison and Porter, 2003). Coexistence with invasive ants may be more prevalent than currently understood, and will most likely vary as a function of time (Helms and Vinson, 2001;Morrison and Porter, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An asterisk indicates the species was found in both invaded and uninvaded plots (Morrison and Porter, 2003). Coexistence with invasive ants may be more prevalent than currently understood, and will most likely vary as a function of time (Helms and Vinson, 2001;Morrison and Porter, 2003). Other studies on coexistence between invasive and native ants have implicated non-overlapping habitats, strong competitive abilities (Wetterer et al, 2001) and temperature dependent surface activity (Helms and Vinson, 2005) to enable coexistence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community level impacts of an ant invader and food mediated coexistence

2007

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Ant invasions exert a range of effects on recipient communities, from displacement of particular species to more complex community disruption. While species loss has been recorded for a number of invasion events, a little examined aspect of these invasions is the mechanisms for coexistence with resident ant species. The yellow crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes (Smith), is considered one of the worlds worst ant invaders and has recently undergone rapid population growth in Tokelau. We surveyed the ground-dwelling ant fauna in two plots on each of five invaded and three uninvaded islands across two atolls in Tokelau to examine community characteristics of the ant fauna in areas with and without yellow crazy ants. We also used three types of food bait (tuna, jam and peanut butter) to experimentally test if species are able to coexist by consuming different food resources. Anoplolepis gracilipes was found to coexist with two to six other ant species at any one site, and coexisted with a total of 11 ant species. Four species never co-occurred with A. gracilipes. Non-metric multidimensional scaling showed significant differences in community composition and the relative abundance of species between areas that had, and had not, been invaded by A. gracilipes. The number of other ant species was significantly lower in communities invaded by the yellow crazy ant, but did not decline with increasing A. gracilipes abundance, indicating that impacts were independent of population density. The yellow crazy ant dominated all tuna and jam baits, but had a low attendance on peanut butter, allowing four other ant species to access this resource. Our results demonstrate community level impacts of an ant invader on a tropical oceanic atoll and suggest that differing use of food resources can facilitate coexistence in ant communities.

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“…Research was excluded if entire or substantial data were used from sites previously described in another paper (Sanders et al 2001;Holway et al 2002a, b;Morrison 2002;Holway and Suarez 2006;Tillberg et al 2007). Morrison and Porter (2003), which sampled grazed paddocks, was included as an exception as ant species diversity was positively correlated with S. invicta abundance. To ensure consistency among studies, raw abundance data was requested and used to calculate all variables.…”

Section: Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) invasions within undisturbed mainland Australian habitats: no support for biotic resistance hypothesis

Hoffmann

Saul

2010

Biol Invasions

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Ants are highly successful invaders, especially on islands, yet undisturbed mainland environments often do not contain invasive ants, and this observation is largely attributed to biotic resistance. An exception is the incursion of Yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes within northeast Arnhem Land. The existence of A. gracilipes within this landscape's intact environments containing highly competitive ant communities indicates that biotic resistance is not a terminally inhibitory factor mediating this ant's distribution at the regional scale. We test whether biotic resistance may still operate at a more local scale by assessing whether ecological impacts are proportional to habitat suitability for A. gracilipes, as well as to the competitiveness of the invaded ant community. The abundance and species richness of native ants were consistently greater in uninfested than infested plots but the magnitude of the impacts did not differ between habitats. The abundance and ordinal richness of other macro-invertebrates were consistently lower in infested plots in all habitats. A significant negative relationship was found for native ant abundance and A. gracilipes abundance. No relationships were found between A. gracilipes abundance and any measure of other macro-invertebrates. The relative contribution of small ants (\2.5 mm) to total abundance and relative species richness was always greater in infested sites coinciding with a reduction of the contribution of the larger size classes. Differences in the relative abundance of ant functional groups between infested and uninfested sites reflected impacts according to ant size classes and ecology. The widespread scale of these incursions and non-differential level of impacts among the habitats, irrespective of native ant community competitiveness and abiotic suitability to A. gracilipes, does not support the biotic resistance hypothesis.

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Positive Association Between Densities of the Red Imported Fire Ant,Solenopsis invicta(Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and Generalized Ant and Arthropod Diversity

Cited by 47 publications

References 44 publications

The Impacts of Sprawl on Biodiversity: the Ant Fauna of the Lower Florida Keys

The Impacts of Sprawl on Biodiversity: the Ant Fauna of the Lower Florida Keys

Community level impacts of an ant invader and food mediated coexistence

Yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) invasions within undisturbed mainland Australian habitats: no support for biotic resistance hypothesis

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