Data/hora: 11/06/2024 22:16:33

Biblioteca(s): | Embrapa Florestas.
Data corrente: | 08/10/2008
Data da última atualização: | 08/10/2008
Autoria: | VERHAAGH, M.; RABELING, C.
Título: | Ants as soil organisms - methods and results from diversity and ecological studies in the Neotropics.
Ano de publicação: | 2008
Fonte/Imprenta: | In: INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON SOIL ZOOLOGY, 15; INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON APTERYGOTA, 12., 2008, Curitiba. Biodiversity, conservation and sustainabele management of soil animal: abstracts. Colombo: Embrapa Florestas. Editors: George Gardner Brown; Klaus Dieter Sautter; Renato Marques; Amarildo Pasini. 1 CD-ROM.
Idioma: | Inglês

Conteúdo:

Ants belong to the most abundant and species-rich soil macrofauna groups in Neotropical forest
ecosystems. They are very important ecologically because they act at many levels in the soil
ecosystem. A hypogaeic and an epigaeic fauna can be distinguished but often not in a strict
sense but in many combinations regarding nesting and other activity habits. Ants function as
predators and prey, as herbivores and, with the group of fungus growing ants, as decomposers.
They are recognized as ecosystem engineers because of their soil moving activity and
concentration of nutrients in and around their nests (Rojas Fernándes 2003) and are good
indicators of habitat type (Bihn et al. 2008). Standardized sampling protocols have already been
developed (Agosti et al., 2000) to investigate their biodiversity.
The presentation will give a short review of methods to study soil ant diversity and our knowledge
about species richness and taxonomic composition of soil ant communities in the Neotropics.
Further, the ecological importance of two soil ant groups will be highlighted, small fungus growers
and army ants.
While leafcutting fungus growers received quite a lot of research attention the natural history and
the ecological impact of the majority of small non-leafcutting fungus growing ants have been
largely neglected. Even the nest architecture of the species is often unknown (Rabeling et al.
2007). We present data from a comparative study in an Amazonian forest and an agroforestry
system that show the contrarious size of diversity and abundance in both habitats and discuss
the ecological role of these small ants in soil physics and chemistry.
The results of another study focussing on predacious hypogaeic army ants demonstrate that the
diversity and abundance of army ants in neotropical soils is still largely unknown and in conclusion
also their ecological impact.
Agosti, D., Majer, J. D., Alonso, L.E. & Schultz, T. R. (eds.) 2000. Ants: standard methods for
measuring and monitoring biodiversity. Washington.
Bihn, J. H., M. Verhaagh, M. Brändle, and R. Brandl. 2008. Do secondary forests act as refuges
for old growth forest animals? Recovery of ant diversity in the Atlantic forest of Brazil. Biological
Conservation 141:733-743.
Rabeling, C., Verhaagh, M. & Engels, W. 2007. Comparative study of nest architecture and
colony structure of the fungus-growing ants, Mycocepurus goeldii and M. smithii. Journal of Insect
Science 7(40): 1-13
Rojas Fernández, P. (2003): El papel de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) en la dinámica
edáfica. Pp. 197-216 in: Alvarez-Sánchez, J. & Naranjo-García, E. (eds.) Ecología del suelo en
la selva tropical húmeda de Mexico. Xalapa

Categoria do assunto: | --
Registro original: | Embrapa Florestas (CNPF)
Exemplares: | CNPF - (43870-1) - UPE - PL - -- - CD0305 -  -  - DIS