Please wait a minute...
Journal of Arid Land  2014, Vol. 6 Issue (1): 117-127    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-013-0190-y
Research Articles     
Response of ants to grazing disturbance at the central Monte Desert of Argentina: community descriptors and functional group scheme
Silvia CLAVER*, Susana L SILNIK, Florencia F CAMPÓN
Entomology Lab, IADIZA-CONICET, CCT Mendoza 5500, Argentina
Download:   PDF(350KB)
Export: BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)      

Abstract  Livestock ranching is one of the main productive activities in arid regions of the world. Grazing produces changes in animal as well as plant communities (e.g. richness, abundance and species dominance relationships). Ants are good biological indicators due to the environmental fidelity of some of their community parameters. We described the functional structure of the ant community in the central Monte of Mendoza, Argentina, and examined the effect of grazing using richness, diversity and the functional group scheme. We used pitfall traps to sample ants at a reserve with 30-year cattle exclusion and at an adjacent ranch. Eleven of the 27 recorded species showed significant differences in their abundance and two species were absent at the ranch. While richness and diversity did not reflect these differences, functional groups did. Hot Climate Specialists were more abundant at the ranch while Cryptic Species and Generalized Myrmicinae increased at the reserve. This study supports the utility of the functional group scheme to study the effects of grazing disturbance in ant communities of arid regions.

Received: 15 November 2012      Published: 10 February 2014
Fund:  

This work was partially funded by a grant from the National Council of Research (Argentina) Number 4678 for the project “Insect Biodiversity of the Monte”.

Corresponding Authors:
Cite this article:

Silvia CLAVER, Susana L SILNIK, Florencia F CAMPóN. Response of ants to grazing disturbance at the central Monte Desert of Argentina: community descriptors and functional group scheme. Journal of Arid Land, 2014, 6(1): 117-127.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-013-0190-y     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2014/V6/I1/117

Abraham E, Boshoven J, Claver S. 2001. Reserve zoning. In: Claver S, Roig-Juñent S. The Monte Desert: Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve. Córdoba, Argentina: UNESCO-ORCYT-MAB, 107–112.

Agosti D, Majer J, Alonso L, et al. 2000. Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity. Washington & London: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Andersen A N. 1987. Ant community organization an environmental assessment. In: Majer J D. The Role of Invertebrates in Conservation and Biological Survey. Western Australia Department of Conservation and Land Management Report, 43–52.

Andersen A N. 1991. Parallels between ants and plants: implications for community ecology. In: Huxley C R, Cutler D F. Ant-Plant Interactions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 539–558.

Andersen A N. 1995. A classification of Australian ant communities based on functional groups which parallel plant life-forms in relation to stress and disturbance. Journal of Biogeography, 22: 15–29.

Andersen A N. 1997. Functional groups and patterns of organization in North American ant communities: a comparison with Australia. Journal of Biogeography, 24: 433–460.

Andersen A N. 2000. A global ecology of rainforest ants: functional groups in relation to environmental stress and disturbance. In: Agosti D, Majer J D, Alonso L E, et al. Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 25–34.

Andersen A N, Hoffmann B D, Muller W J, et al. 2002. Using ants as bioindicators in land management: simplifying assessment of ant community responses. Journal of Applied Ecology, 39: 8–17.

Bestelmeyer B, Wiens J. 1996. The effects of land use on the structure of ground-foraging ant communities in the Argentine Chaco. Ecological Applications, 6: 1225–1240.

Bruch C. 1916. Contribution to the study of San Luis Province ants. Revista del Museo de La Plata, 23: 291–357.

Bucher E H. 1974. Ecological observations about chacoan forest arthropods of Tucuman. Revista de Facultad de Ciências Exatas, Físicas y Naturales de Córdoba (Nueva Série) Biología, 1: 35–122.

Cabrera A, Willink A. 1973. Latinamerican Biogeography (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: OEA, 122.

Claver S, Fowler H. 1993. The ant fauna (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of the Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve. Naturalia (São Paulo), 18: 189–193.

Claver S. 2000. Ecology of Acromyrmex lobicornis in Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve, Monte biogeographic province. Habitat preference, colony abundance, resource use and activity patterns. Ph.D. Thesis. La Plata: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 160.

Cuezzo F. 2000. Revision of the genus Forelius (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Dolichoderinae). Sociobiology, 35: 197–277.

Estrella H, Boshoven J, Tognelli M. 2001. Regional and Ñacuñán Reserve climate characteristics. In: Claver S, Roig-Juñent S. Monte Desert: Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve.

Farji-Brener A G, Corley J C, Bettinelli J. 2002. The effects of fire on ant communities in north-western Patagonia: the importance of habitat structure and regional context. Diversity and Distribution, 8: 235–243.

Hoffmann B D, Griffiths A D, Andersen A N. 2000. Responses of ant communities to dry sulfur deposition from mining emissions in semi-arid Tropical Australia, with implications for the use of functional groups. Austral Ecology, 25: 653–663.

Hoffmann B D. 2001. Responses of ant communities to land use impacts in Australia. Ph.D. Thesis. Darwin: Northern Territory University.

Hoffmann B D, Andersen A N. 2003. Responses of ants to disturbance in Australia, with particular references to functional groups. Austral Ecology, 28: 444–464.

Hoffmann B D. 2010. Using ants for rangeland monitoring: global patterns in the responses of ant communities to grazing. Ecological Indicators, 10: 105–111.

Lattke J E. 2003. Biogeography of Neotropical ants. In: Fernández F. Introduction to Ants of the Neotropical Region. Biological Resources Research Institute Alexander von Humboldt.

Majer J D. 1983. Ants: bioindicators of mine site rehabilitation, land-use, and land conservation. Enviromental Management, 7: 375–383.

Mares M A, Blair W F, Enders F A, et al. 1977. The strategies and community patterns of desert animals. In: Orians G H, Solbrig O T. Convergent Evolution in Warm Deserts. An Examination of Strategies and Patterns in Deserts of Argentina and the United States. Stroudsburg-Pennsylvania: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, 107–164.

Mares M A, Morello J, Goldstein G. 1985. The Monte desert and other subtropical semi-arid biomes of Argentina, with comments on their relation to North American arid areas. In: Evenari M, Noy Meir I, Goodall G. Hot Deserts and Arid Shrublands, Ecosystems of the World. Amsterdam-Oxford-New York: Elsevier, 203–237.

Nash M S, Bradford D F, Franson S E, et al. 2004. Livestock grazing effects on ant communities in the eastern Mojave Desert, USA. Ecological Indicators, 4: 199–213.

Pirk G I, Lopez de Casenave J. 2006. Diet and seed removal rates by the harvester ants Pogonomyrmex rastratus and Pogonomyrmex pronotalis in the central Monte desert, Argentina. Insectes Sociaux, 53: 119–125.

Read J L, Andersen A N. 2000. The value of ants as early warning bioindicators: responses to pulsed cattle grazing at an Australian arid zone locality. Journal of Arid Environment, 45: 231–251.

Roig F, Rossi B E. 2001. Flora and Vegetation. In: Claver S, Roig-Juñent S. The Monte Desert: Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve. Córdoba, Argentina: UNESCO-ORCYT-MAB, 41–70.

Schnell M, Pik A J, Dangerfield J M. 2003. Ant community succession within eucalypt plantations on used pasture and implications for taxonomic sufficiency in biomonitoring. Austral Ecology, 28: 553–565.

Schofield C J, Bucher E H. 1986. Industrial contributions to desertification in South America. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 1: 78–80.

Scougall S A, Majer J D, Hobbs R J. 1993. Edge effect in grazed and ungrazed Western Australian wheatbelt remnants in relation to ecosystem reconstruction. In: Saunders D A, Hobbs R J, Erlich P R. Nature Conservation 3: Reconstruction of Fragmented Ecosystems. Chipping Norton, NSW: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 163–78.

Tadey M, Farji-Brener A G. 2007. Indirect effects of exotic grazers: livestock decreases the nutrient content of refuse dumps of leaf-cutting ants through vegetation impoverishment. Journal of Applied Ecology, 44: 1209–1218.
No related articles found!