Did ash fall from Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex affect ant abundance and richness in the Patagonian steppe?

Abstract

Ecología Austral, 24:23-30 (2014)

Natural disturbances are important components of ecosystem dynamics. Large scale disturbances produced by volcanoes, have been poorly studied because of their low frequency, the lack of baseline studies due to their unpredictability, the impossibility of replication, and the difficulty of conducting long-term studies to monitor ecosystem recovery. The recent eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex (June 2011), which produced an ash fall covering 24 million ha of Patagonia, provides a unique opportunity of studying this type of disturbance in areas with baseline data. The summer before the ash fall (2011) ant communities were characterized in areas of the Patagonian steppe which were later covered with 4 cm of fine ash. The aim of this study is to establish if ash deposition affected ant abundance, species richness and composition. In summers 2012 and 2013, sampling was repeated and data obtained were compared among years. Total ant abundance tended to be lower after the eruption, but species richness and composition were similar before and two seasons after the ash fall. The little effects on ant community is mainly a consequence of the timing of the eruption, ants’ social nature, and ash thickness. The eruption occurred at the end of the autumn when ant activity was reduced due to low temperatures. Also, the potential mortality of outside workers during the acute deposition phase does not risk colony survival since they represent a small percentage of it. Ash thickness was probably not high enough to produce severe effects. Only four out of 13 species changed their incidence after the ash fall, three of them not until the second season, showing a delayed response. This was probably a consequence of indirect effects mediated by resource and environmental changes. Long-term effects on other species cannot be discarded.