Tallgrass prairie ants: their species composition, ecological roles, and response to management

Nemec, Kristine T.

doi:10.1007/s10841-014-9656-2

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Often traps can be overwhelmed with great numbers of an individual species, simply because a colony is located in proximity to the trap. We grouped these species into four categories of habitat specialisation based on established habitat records (Coovert, 2005;Nemec, showing little habitat affinity). Setting the traps 25 m apart reduces the chance that ants from one colony would be captured in multiple traps.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ant-trap frequency can be used to reduce potential overestimation of social insects inherent in worker abundance (Andersen, 1991;Gotelli et al, 2011). T. ambiguus nests in hollow stems and has been cited multiple times in remnants (Gregg, 1944;Hill & Brown, 2010;Nemec, 2014), and P. tysoni, a seed harvester, is common in southern tall grass prairie remnants (Hill & Brown, 2010). Some large bodied Formica ants can travel up to 20 m from their nests (Schlick-Steiner et al, 2006), but typically, grassland ants travel no more than 2 m (Albrecht & Gotelli, 2001;Schlick-Steiner et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…T. sessile was more frequent in young sites, disturbed by intensive agriculture, while T. caespitum frequency was determined by sandy soil reducing the signal of any urbanisation effects. T. ambiguus is a known prairie associate (Gregg, 1944;Hill & Brown, 2010;Nemec, 2014) and may be a potential indicator of grassland recovery from disturbance at the landscape and patch levels. While both of these species are common in human-dominated habitats, they have also been detected in remnant prairies.…”

Section: Disturbance-tolerant and Uncommon Specialist Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ant species assembly in constructed grasslands is structured at patch and landscape levels

Campbell

Crist

2017

Insect Conserv Diversity

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Agri‐environmental incentive programmes encourage conversion of marginal agricultural land to grasslands to reduce soil erosion and support biodiversity of native flora and fauna. Most grassland animals colonise these constructed habitats as propagules from the surrounding landscape. Ants are slow to colonise and rely on resources within the patch, making them valuable as indicators of disturbance and recovery. We studied how ant species diversity and composition are structured by patch and landscape variation of grasslands in Ohio, USA. Ant communities were collected from 23 constructed grasslands differing in area, age, vegetation, soils, management and surrounding land cover. We analysed trap frequency for 14 species that varied in habitat specialisation to identify species responses to patch‐ and landscape‐level predictors. Grassland age and soil texture determined ant species richness and community composition. Trap frequency analysis showed contrasting species responses to patch and landscape characteristics: habitat specialists were more abundant in older, larger patches with more surrounding grassland, while disturbance‐tolerant species were more frequent in younger patches surrounded by intensive agriculture. Habitat generalists and open habitat species included a variety of patch‐ and landscape‐level factors in best models. Ant community assembly in constructed grasslands is shaped by time and physical characteristics at the patch‐level, but the surrounding landscape acts as a filter for the colonising community. Our findings support the use of ants as ecosystem recovery indicators following disturbance in agricultural landscapes, but show that shifts in species composition are better indicators of grassland habitat variation than ant richness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Disturbance-tolerant and Uncommon Specialist Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ant species assembly in constructed grasslands is structured at patch and landscape levels

Campbell

Crist

2017

Insect Conserv Diversity

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“…Ants alter plant communities through predation of herbivorous insects (Sanders & van Veen, 2011), seed dispersal (Howe & Smallwood, 1982), and seed consumption (Dauber, Rommeler, & Wolters, 2006). Additionally, they build subterranean nests and thereby modify the soil structure, which increases plant diversity (Nemec, 2014;Del Toro et al, 2012) due to the creation of small islands for less competitive plant species, which would otherwise be outcompeted (Dean, Milton, & Klotz, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect effects of land‐use intensification on ant communities in temperate grasslands

Heuss

Grevé

Schäfer

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Land‐use intensification is a major driver of local species extinction and homogenization. Temperate grasslands, managed at low intensities over centuries harbored a high species diversity, which is increasingly threatened by the management intensification over the last decades. This includes key taxa like ants. However, the underlying mechanisms leading to a decrease in ant abundance and species richness as well as changes in functional community composition are not well understood. We sampled ants on 110 grassland plots in three regions in Germany. The sampled grasslands are used as meadows or pastures, being mown, grazed or fertilized at different intensities. We analyzed the effect of the different aspects of land use on ant species richness, functional trait spaces, and community composition by using a multimodel inference approach and structural equation models. Overall, we found 31 ant species belonging to 8 genera, mostly open habitat specialists. Ant species richness, functional trait space of communities, and abundance of nests decreased with increasing land‐use intensity. The land‐use practice most harmful to ants was mowing, followed by heavy grazing by cattle. Fertilization did not strongly affect ant species richness. Grazing by sheep increased the ant species richness. The effect of mowing differed between species and was strongly negative for Formica species while Myrmica and common Lasius species were less affected. Rare species occurred mainly in plots managed at low intensity. Our results show that mowing less often or later in the season would retain a higher ant species richness—similarly to most other grassland taxa. The transformation from (sheep) pastures to intensively managed meadows and especially mowing directly affects ants via the destruction of nests and indirectly via loss of grassland heterogeneity (reduced plant species richness) and increased soil moisture by shading of fast‐growing plant species.

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“…Worldwide, ant communities have been largely used as a bioindicator group for land use changes and disturbance analysis (e.g. Underwood & Fisher, 2006;Nemec, 2014), showing very positive contributions to rangeland systems monitoring (e.g. Hoffmann, 2010), and evaluation of habitat restoration success (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ground-Dwelling and Vegetation Ant Fauna in Southern Brazilian Grasslands

Dröse¹,

Podgaiski²,

Cavalleri³

et al. 2017

Sociobiology

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Non-forest ecosystems, as natural grasslands from Southern Brazil, are still neglected in conservation policies. Measuring their biodiversity is one of the main steps to generate management strategies for these habitats. This study aims to (i) describe grassland ant richness and composition in Rio Grande do Sul state, and (ii) compare ant communities sampled on the ground and in grassland vegetation, adding to our knowledge of habitat use patterns and vegetation associated species. Six sites were sampled, three belonging to the Pampa biome and three in highland region from the Atlantic Forest biome. Ant fauna was collected once per year in summer during four years in each site with pitfalls traps and sweeping nets. Overall, 29,812 ant individuals were sampled belonging to eight subfamilies, 30 genera e 106 species. The grasslands of Pampa accumulated 91 species and 45 exclusive species, while highland grasslands summed up 61 species and only 15 exclusive species. Species composition differs between biomes as well as between sampling methods. Ant communities sampled from vegetation represented a clear subset of the fauna sampled with pitfall traps, and indication analysis showed only two species associated with this stratum: Myrmelachista gallicola and Pseudomyrmex nr. flavidulus. This study highlights the importance of Southern Brazilian grasslands and the need for specific conservation strategies for the natural grasslands from each biome.

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Tallgrass prairie ants: their species composition, ecological roles, and response to management

Cited by 29 publications

References 88 publications

Ant species assembly in constructed grasslands is structured at patch and landscape levels

Ant species assembly in constructed grasslands is structured at patch and landscape levels

Direct and indirect effects of land‐use intensification on ant communities in temperate grasslands

Ground-Dwelling and Vegetation Ant Fauna in Southern Brazilian Grasslands

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