Abstract
Coastal dunes are complex and fragile ecosystems. The decrease in environmental stressors from sea to inland creates zonation patterns of habitats, which support high biodiversity. Although coastal dunes have been examined in primary succession studies for more than 100 years, invertebrates have received much less attention than other taxa. In this study, we examined ant community composition and its relationship with vegetation structure on dunes, and used ants as indicators to reveal the influence of anthropogenic disturbances on these habitats. Quadrat sampling, hand collecting, and beating plants were used to sample ants on coastal dunes fringing the northern Gulf of Mexico. Ants representing 44 species were found, with diversity and number of functional groups increasing from foredunes to backdunes. Bush areas of the backdunes supported a unique ant community. Ant diversity was correlated with plant richness, stem number, and plant cover, but the correlation was not consistent among habitats. Ant diversity was lower in degraded, young-planted, and re-built but not in old-planted sites. In addition, different types of disturbance changed the ant community and functional groups in different ways. Our study emphasizes the importance of protecting the whole dune system, especially the backdunes, which support high diversity but are often completely destroyed by urban development. Data from this research provides a benchmark to examine trajectories of coastal dune ecosystem degradation or recovery when exposed to natural or anthropogenic disturbances.
Highlights
Coastal dunes have a worldwide distribution and protect areas further inland from erosion by waves and wind (David Jr and Fitzgerald 2004)
We examined ant community composition and its relationship with vegetation structure on dunes, and used ants as indicators to reveal the influence of anthropogenic disturbances on these habitats
Our study supports the hypothesis that community structure becomes more complex in later stages of succession, and species diversity increases upon moving inland from the water’s edge and is representative of the various stages of succession on coastal dunes
Summary
Coastal dunes have a worldwide distribution and protect areas further inland from erosion by waves and wind (David Jr and Fitzgerald 2004). Dunes support high ecological diversity and contain many endemic and endangered species due to their geomorphological and environmental heterogeneity (Powell 1981; Lichter 1998; Van der Maarel 2003) They are fragile ecosystems and suffer from many kinds of natural and anthropogenic disturbance including hurricanes, invasive species, global sea-level rise, urbanization, and improper management (Feagin et al 2005; Grunewald 2006; El Banna and Mahmoud 2008; Bonte and Maes 2008; Claudino-Sales et al 2008; Marchante et al 2008; Jackson and Cooper 2011; Provoost et al 2011). Compared to the well-studied soils and plant succession, much less is known about invertebrate changes in coastal dunes, and in other primary succession sites (Kaufmann 2001)
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