Abstract
Ant assemblages were studied in Warsaw in the context of the effects of urban pressure. Four types of urban greenery were selected: (1) green areas bordering streets, (2) in housing estates, and (3) in parks, and (4) patches of urban woodland. In total, there were 27 species of ants. In terms of the total ant activity density, Lasius niger predominated in all the the lawn biotopes (1-3) and Myrmica rubra in the wooded areas. Ant species diversity was highest in parks and wooded areas and lowest in green areas bor- dering streets. In contrast, activity density was highest in green areas bordering streets and lowest in wooded areas. Some species are found only in a few habitats. Stenamma debile, Lasius brunneus, L. fuliginosus and Temnothorax crassispinus almost exclusively occurred in wooded areas, whereas L. niger was most often found in lawn biotopes. Myrmica rugulosa and Tetramorium caespitum were most abundant in green areas bordering streets, while in parks Lasius flavus, Formica cunicularia and Solenopsis fugax were most abundant. In general, the ant assemblages recorded showed a significantly nested pattern, with biotope type being a significant determinant of nestedness. The assemblages found in green areas in housing estates and bordering streets constituted a subsample of the assemblages in parks and wooded areas. Ant species were non-randomly distributed in this urbanized landscape and the species recorded in the most transformed biotopes constitute subsamples of those inhabiting less transformed biotopes. This finding empha- sizes the importance of wooded areas for the maintenance of biodiversity in urban areas.
Highlights
Urbanization is a global and unavoidable process affecting an increasing amount of rural landscape each year (e.g. Botkin & Beveridge, 1997; Clarke et al, 2008)
We investigated the nestedness of ant assemblages in the green areas studied
27 ant species were recorded in all the plots in the Warsaw urban green areas studied (Fig. 2): eight species in green areas bordering streets, 11 in those in housing estates, 19 in wooded areas and 22 in parks (Fig. 2)
Summary
Urbanization is a global and unavoidable process affecting an increasing amount of rural landscape each year (e.g. Botkin & Beveridge, 1997; Clarke et al, 2008). Biotic impoverishment seems unavoidable if one considers the severe pressures inflicted on urban environments: changes in the vegetation brought about by its management or that resulting from general human activity (Rosenberg et al, 2000; Mabelis 2005), warming of local microclimates (e.g. Angilletta et al, 2007), fragmentation of the habitats of plant and animal species (e.g. Clarke et al, 2008; Yasuda & Koike, 2009), significant levels of pollution and very often increased soil salinity (Jim, 1998). All these factors unavoidably affect assemblages of urbandwelling animals. The mosaic of transformed land and well preserved patches provides an opportunity to observe the response of particular components of biodiversity to various levels of transformation at relatively small spatial scales
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