![]() Studies contrasting sampling methods and developing a unified sampling framework that could be used among different ecosystems are needed, particularly in temperate forests and forest-steppe ecotones where such work has been less frequent compared to tropical systems. Habitat specificity of sampling methods affects our ability to discern patterns present in ant assemblages across ecosystem boundaries (ecotones) and to compare ant assemblages between different ecosystems or within ecosystems undergoing successional changes in vegetation over time (e.g., due to changing climate or land-use). For example, pitfall trap method is the main method used for sampling epigaeic ant assemblages in relatively open habitats such as grasslands, deserts, or shrublands, while leaf-litter sampling method is preferred in forest habitats. While numerous sampling techniques are available, their suitability can vary substantially across different habitats and ant assemblages. Our understanding of the role of ants in ecosystems hinges to a large extent on the sampling methodology used to quantify the composition, richness, and abundance (or activity) of ant assemblages. Ants belong among the most studied terrestrial invertebrates they have been used to monitor ecosystem health and functioning, effects of changing climate, as well as the effects of changing land-use and successional processes. Thus, an integrated sampling approach should be used to fully characterize changes in ant assemblages across ecosystem boundaries, or with vegetation change over time, and particularly so in species-rich habitats such as forest-steppe ecotones.Īnts (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are a varied, abundant, and ubiquitous group of insects that can exert a strong influence as ecosystem engineers on physical, chemical, and biotic properties of terrestrial ecosystems, and especially on soil environment. The integrated sampling approach using both methods yielded more accurate characterization of species richness and composition, and particularly so in species-rich forest-steppe habitat where the combined sample identified significantly higher number of species compared to either of the two methods on their own. Although pitfall trapping characterized differences in species richness and composition among the ecosystems better, with beech forest being most species poor and ecotone most species rich, litter sifting was more successful in identifying characteristic litter-dwelling species in oak-dominated forest. Neither method represented ant communities completely, but pitfall trapping accounted for more species (24) than litter sifting (16). Using both methods, we collected 5,328 individual ant workers from 28 species. We compared ant assemblages of closed-forests (beech- or oak-dominated) and open forest-steppe habitats in southwestern Carpathians using methods for closed-forest (litter sifting) and open habitats (pitfall trapping), and developed an integrated sampling approach to characterize changes in ant assemblages across these adjacent ecosystems. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) have been shown to be particularly sensitive to changes in temperature and vegetation and they require different sampling methods in closed vs. ![]() Yet, our ability to detect changes in biological communities across these ecosystems, or to understand their environmental drivers, can be hampered when different sampling methods are required to characterize biological communities of the adjacent but ecologically different ecosystems. ![]() Global or regional environmental changes in climate or land use have been increasingly implied in shifts in boundaries (ecotones) between adjacent ecosystems such as beech or oak-dominated forests and forest-steppe ecotones that frequently co-occur near the southern range limits of deciduous forest biome in Europe. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |