Ants as a climate change bioindicator in Sirimau Forest at Ambon Island

Abstract

The destruction of forests on small islands is caused by disturbance of human activities such as forest burning, flooding, erosion, rock-taking, sand and clearing of forest areas for agriculture, plantation, settlement and other public facilities. Ants are organisms that can react when there is a change in their habitat. Because of its abundance, its important functions, and complex interactions with the ecosystems it occupies. Ants can be used as bioindicators in environmental assessment programs, such as forest fires, vegetation disruption, deforestation, climate change, mining, waste disposal, and land use factors. Ants are capable of marking environmental degradation and climate change, as they are very sensitive to climate change in their habitats. The study was conducted on the Sirimau Forest at Ambon. The role of ants in the ecosystem will be disrupted when habitat changes occur, so this study aims to find out the forms of introduction that occur in the forest area on the island of Ambon, how ants react to climate change, ant diversity and examine the role of ants as an indicator of climate change. Approaches are made to biotic components (vegetation and ants) as well as abiotic components (soil temperature, air temperature and air humidity). The results of the field inventory found 28 types of ants, 3152 individuals where Odonthoponera tranversa infuscate, Oecophylla smaragdina SUENITIDA, Hypoponera bugnioni are dominant with a species richness value of 3.35, 3.57 species density and 1.29 species diversity with an NOVI value with a vegetation cover area of > 60% in classes 6-9. The highest vegetation diversity was 1.17. Studies at soil temperatures and organic matter content show that soil temperatures vary between 25-27 °C and this is correlated with the area of vegetation cover shown in the NOVI results. The impact of damage and changes to the protected forest ecosystem on ants varies widely. Ants are colonized animals that will die due to changes or damage to the ecosystem, of course it can be explained as colony extinction in the ecosystem.