Local and Temporal Effects on Ant Richness, Recruitment and Resource Dominance in Two Cerrado Areas

Liegy Resende Dos Santos,Renan Moura

doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v68i2.6204

Abstract

Ecological interactions and environmental conditions are associated with community structuring, where the resource quality and availability, in addition to interspecific competition, determine potential local interactions. Using ground-dwelling ant species as a methodological tool model, we evaluated how three different daily periods affected species richness, recruitment, and resource dominance (baits) within two Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) phytophysiognomies. We found a total of 34 ant species and significant differences in species composition between the cerrado areas. Camponotus and Pheidole genera were the most abundant in both studied areas in which several species shared baits. Ant richness did not vary between the cerrado areas, but ant recruitment was affected by observation periods: in both areas, the hottest period (afternoon) reflected the lowest recruitment, while the coolest period (morning) had the highest recruitment. We observed that the ant species that first found baits had a 29% chance of being the only species observed using the resource, while those that arrived after other species had only 7%. Both areas promote the coexistence of ant species by shaping their interactions. We suggest that environmental structuring promotes niche partitioning in both spatial and temporal scales, providing possibilities of microhabitats that allow species to explore the environment and forage.

Highlights

Competition is a major process related to community structuring, where the resource quality and the competitive ability of species determine the interaction outcomes (Traniello et al, 1989; Fonseca & Robinson, 1990; Dáttilo et al, 2013)
To understand whether the ant richness varied according to the cerrado areas and observation periods, we modeled the total richness per offered bait by using a linear mixed model with Gaussian distribution
We found 34 ant species, 24 from cerrado stricto sensu, 19 from cerradão, and 9 species shared by the two areas (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Competition is a major process related to community structuring, where the resource quality and the competitive ability of species determine the interaction outcomes (Traniello et al, 1989; Fonseca & Robinson, 1990; Dáttilo et al, 2013). It is known that competitively superior species can exclude their competitors, being able to dominate certain resources; it is not common to observe, in complex ecological systems, the total exclusion of a given population (Brose, 2008; Camarota et al, 2016). Some animals are aggressive and large, but not so efficient when searching for food; others, despite being fragile, may have keen senses, being able to detect resources from great distances (Bestelmeyer & Wiens, 2001; Parr & Gibb, 2010) This high interspecific variation observed in nature is mediated by trade-off mechanisms and allows the coexistence of countless species by reducing the intensity of competitive interactions (Fellers, 1987; Tillman, 2000; Miller & Chesson, 2009). Species are delimited by a heterogeneous distribution of resources and environmental conditions (Wang et al, 2001), which determine

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