Invasion of Camponotus punctulatus ants in sown pastures: consequences for ant activity and diversity

Authors

  • Patricia J. Folgarait Unidad de Investigación en Interacciones Biológicas, Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
  • Norma B. Gorosito Unidad de Investigación en Interacciones Biológicas, Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA

Abstract

Agricultural activity in NE Argentina promotes the demographic explosion of the ant Camponotus punctulatus Mayr. We compared ant activity between a natural grassland and a neighbouring sown pasture in north-eastern Argentina during 24 h periods during three different times in the year. We offered sugar and tuna baits to ants in order to assess ant foraging activity. We set pitfalls during the summer to quantify ant activity independently of their responses to food resources. We also used bait and pitfall data to estimate ant diversity. C. punctulatus was the single ant species present at baits in the sown pasture. Significantly greater numbers of C. punctulatus in comparison to other ants were found at pitfalls at the agriculturally-disturbed plot when compared with the natural grassland, although no differences in ant species richness were observed between plots. C. punctulatus was active throughout the day. Foraging of the ant community differed significantly between the sown pasture and the natural grassland. Foraging activity of C. punctulatus and all other ant species exhibited opposite patterns in the natural grassland. The successful establishment of C. punctulatus after agricultural disturbance seemed to have a negative effect on the foraging patterns of the ant community through a change in the relative abundance of ant species.

References

ANDERSEN, AN. 1990. The use of ant communities to evaluate change in Australian terrestrial ecosystems: a review and a recipe. Proc. Ecol. Soc. Aust. 16:347-357.

ANDERSEN, AN. 1991. Sampling communities of ground-foraging ants: pitfalls catches compared with quadrat counts in an Australian tropical savanna. Aust. J. Ecol. 16:273-279.

ANDERSEN, AN. 1993. Ants as indicators of restoration success at a uranium mine in tropical Australia. Restoration Ecol. 1:156-167.

ANDERSEN, AN & ME MCKAIGE. 1987. Ant communities at Rotamah Island, Victoria, with particular reference to disturbance and Rhytidoponera tasmaniensis. Proc. R. Soc. Victoria 99:141-146.

BESTELMEYER, BT. 1997. Stress-tolerance in some Chacoan dolichoderine ants: implications for community organization and distribution. J. Arid Environ. 35:297-310.

BESTELMEYER, BT & JA WIENS. 1996. The effects of land use structure of ground-foraging ant communities in the Argentine Chaco. Ecol. Appl. 6:1225-1240.

CARNEVALLI, R. 1994. Fitogeografía de la Provincia de Corrientes, Argentina. Gobierno de la Provincia de Corrientes INTA.

DECAËNS, T; PM LAVELLE; JJ JIMENEZ-JAEN; G ESCOBAR & G RIPPSTEIN. 1994. Impact of land management on soil macrofauna in the Oriental Llanos of Colombia. Eur. J. Soil Biol. 30:157-168.

FELLERS, JH. 1987. Interference and exploitation in a guild of woodland ants. Ecology 68:1466-1478.

FERNÁNDEZ, G; CA BENÍTEZ; O ROYO PALLARÉS & R PIZZIO. 1993. Principales forrajeras nativas del medio este de la Provincia de Corrientes. Serie Técnica INTA-Mercedes 23:1-91.

FOLGARAIT, PJ. 1998. Ant biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem functioning: a review. Biodivers. Conserv. 7:1221-1244.

FOLGARAIT, PJ; S PERELMAN; N GOROSITO; R PICIO & J. FERNÁNDEZ. In press. Effects of Camponotus punctulatus ants on plant community composition and soil properties across land use histories. Plant Ecol.

GREENSLADE, P & PJ GREENSLADE. 1971. The use of baits and preservatives in pitfall traps. J. Aust. Entomol. Soc. 10:253-260.

HECTOR, A; B SCHMID; C BEIERKUHNLEIN; MC CALDEIRA; M DIEMER ET AL. 1999. Plant diversity and productivity experiments in european grasslands. Science 286:1123-1127.

HÖLLDOBLER, B & EO WILSON. 1990. The ants. Belknap Press. Harvard.

HOLLWAY, DA. 1998. Effect of argentine invasions on ground-dwelling arthropods in northern California riparian woodlands. Oecologia 116:252-258.

HUTCHINSON, KJ & KL KING. 1970. Sheep numbers and soil arthropods. Search 1:41-42.

JUSINO-ATRESINO, R & SA PHILLIPS. 1994. Impact of red imported fire ants on the ant fauna of Central Texas. Pp. 259-268 in: DF Williams (ed.). Exotic ants: biology, impact, and control of introduced species. Westview Press.

KING, KL; KJ HUTCHINSON & P GREENSLADE. 1976. The effects of sheep numbers on associations of Collembola in sown pastures. J. Appl. Ecol. 13:731739.

LAVELLE, PM; D BIGNELL; M LEPAGE; V WOLTERS; P ROGER ET AL. 1997. Soil function in a changing world: the role of invertebrate ecosystem engineers. Eur. J. Soil Biol. 33:159-193.

LAVELLE, PM; M DANGERFIELD; C FRAGOSO; V ESCHENBRENNER; D LOPEZ-HERNANDEZ ET AL. 1994. The relationship between soil macrofauna and tropical soil fertility. Pp. 137-169 in: MJ Swift & P Woomer (eds). Tropical soil biology and fertility. John WileySayce.

LOBRY DE BRUYN, LA. 1999. Ants as bioindicators of soil function in rural environment. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 74:425-441.

LONGINO, JT. 1994. How to measure arthropod diversity in a tropical rainforest. Biol. Intl. 28:3-13.

LONGINO, JT & RK COLWELL. 1997. Biodiversity assesment using structured inventory: capturing the ant fauna of a tropical rainforest. Ecol. Appl. 4:1263-1277.

LUBCHENCO, J; AM OLSON; LB BRUBAKER; SR CARPENTER; MM HOLLAND ET AL. 1991. The sustainable biosphere initiative. Ecology 72:371-412.

MAAVARA, V; A MARTIN; A OJA & P NUORTEVA. 1994. Sampling of different social categories of red wood ants (Formica s. str.) for biomonitoring. Pp. 465-489 in: B Markert (ed.). Environmental sampling for trace analysis. VCH Weinheim.

MAJER, JD. 1983. Ants: bio-indication of minesite rehabilitation, land-use and land conservation. Environ. Manage. 7:375-383.

NETER, J; W WASSERMAN & M KUTNER. 1985. Applied linear statistical models. Irwin, Homewood III.

OLIVER, I & AJ BEATTIE. 1996. Designing a cost effective invertebrate survey: a test of methods for rapid assesment of biodiversity. Ecol. Appl. 6:594-607.

PAOLETTI, MG; MR FAVRETTO; BR STINNER; FF PURRINGTON & JE BATER. 1991. Invertebrates as bioindicators of soil use. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 34:341-362.

PRIMACK, RB. 1992. Tropical community dynamics and conservation biology. BioScience 42:818-821.

PURNELL, MF & HN HEIN. 1969. Los suelos de la Estación Experimental Agropecuaria de Mercedes, Provincia de Corrientes. Serie Técnica 31. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria INTA-Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos.

RABITSCH, WB. 1997. Seasonal metal accumulation patterns in the red wood ant Formica pratensis (Hymenoptera) at contaminated and reference sites. J. Appl. Ecol. 34:1455-1461.

ROMERO, H & K JAFFE. 1989. A comparison of methods for sampling ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in savannas. Biotropica 21:348-352.

ROOM, PM. 1975. Diversity and organisation of the ground foraging ant faunas of forest, grassland and tree crops in Papua New Guinea. Aust. J. Zool. 23:71-89.

ROTH, DS; I PERFECTO & B RATHCKE. 1994. The effects of management systems on ground-foraging ant activity and diversity in Costa Rica. Ecol. Appl. 4:423-436.

SALA, OE; F CHAPIN; J ARMESTO; E BERLOW; J BLOOMFIELD ET AL. 2000. Global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100. Science 287:1-5.

SAVOLAINEN, R & K VEPSÄLÄINEN. 1988. A competition hierarchy among boreal ants: impact on resource partitioning and community structure. Oikos 51:135-155.

SOLBRIG, OT. 1992. The IUBS-SCOPE-UNESCO pro- gram of research in biodiversity. Ecol. Appl. 21:31-138.

STRADLING, D J. 1987. Nutritional ecology of ants. Pp. 927-969 in: F Slansky & F Rodriguez (eds). Nutri-tional ecology of insects, mites, spiders, and related invertebrates. John Wiley and Sons.

SUAREZ, AV; DT BOLGER & TJ CASE. 1998. Effects of fragmentation and invasion on native ant commu-nities in coastal southern California. Ecology 79:2041-2056.

TENNANT, LE. 1994. The ecology of Wasmannia auropunctata in primary tropical rainforest in Costa Rica and Panama. Pp. 80-90 in: DF Williams (ed.). Exotic ants: biology, impact, and control of introduced species. Westview Press.

WILLIAMS, DF. 1994. Exotic ants: biology, impact, and control of introduced species. Westview Press.

Downloads

Published

2001-06-01

How to Cite

Folgarait, P. J., & Gorosito, N. B. (2001). Invasion of Camponotus punctulatus ants in sown pastures: consequences for ant activity and diversity. Ecología Austral, 11(1), 049–057. Retrieved from https://ojs.ecologiaaustral.com.ar/index.php/Ecologia_Austral/article/view/1586

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2001)

Section

Articles

License

Authors retain their rights as follows: 1) by granting the journal the right to its first publication, and 2) by registering the published article with a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which allows authors and third parties to view and use it as long as they clearly mention its origin (citation or reference, including authorship and first publication in this journal). Authors can make other non-exclusive distribution agreements as long as they clearly indicate their origin and are encouraged to widely share and disseminate the published version of their work.