How ants shape biodiversity

Abstract

In between Earth's poles, ants exert impacts on other biota that are unmatched by most animal clades. Through their interactions with animals, plants, fungi and microbes, ants have cultivated - or succumbed to - relationships ranging from metabolic mutualisms to exploitation by social parasites. The diversity of these relationships implies that ants are keystone taxa in many habitats, directly or indirectly supporting a menagerie of other species. Yet, beyond these interactions is a less obvious but arguably as significant impact: through their collective ecological pressure, ants have imposed survivorship bias on the species that we observe inhabiting terrestrial environments. If life on land has passed through an ant-shaped selective filter, it is imperative we understand how these insects have sculpted ecological communities and are enmeshed within them. Here, we describe how ants have shaped biodiversity, and the often-devastating consequences of humanity's impact on these social insects.