Effect of tropical forest disturbance on the competitive interactions within a diverse ant community
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Author(s)
Gray, Ross
Ewers, Robert
Boyle, Michael
Chung, Arthur
Gill, RJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Understanding how anthropogenic disturbance influences patterns of community
composition and the reinforcing interactive processes that structure communities is
important to mitigate threats to biodiversity. Competition is considered a primary
reinforcing process, yet little is known concerning disturbance effects on competitive
interaction networks.
We examined how differences in ant community composition
between undisturbed and disturbed Bornean
rainforest, is potentially reflected by
changes in competitive interactions over a food resource. Comparing 10 primary
forest sites to 10 in selectively-logged
forest, we found higher genus richness and
diversity in the primary forest, with 18.5% and 13.0% of genera endemic to primary and logged respectively. From 180 hours of
filming bait cards, we assessed ant-ant interactions, finding that despite considered aggression over food sources, the majority of ant interactions were neutral. Pr
oportion of competitive interactions at bait cards did not differ between forest type, however, the rate and per capita number of competitive interactions was significantly
lower in logged forest. Furthermore, the
majority of genera showed large changes in aggression-score with often inverse relationships to their occupancy rank.
This provides evidence of a shuffled
competitive network, and these unexpected changes in aggressive relationships could
be considered a type of competitive network re-wiring after disturbance.
composition and the reinforcing interactive processes that structure communities is
important to mitigate threats to biodiversity. Competition is considered a primary
reinforcing process, yet little is known concerning disturbance effects on competitive
interaction networks.
We examined how differences in ant community composition
between undisturbed and disturbed Bornean
rainforest, is potentially reflected by
changes in competitive interactions over a food resource. Comparing 10 primary
forest sites to 10 in selectively-logged
forest, we found higher genus richness and
diversity in the primary forest, with 18.5% and 13.0% of genera endemic to primary and logged respectively. From 180 hours of
filming bait cards, we assessed ant-ant interactions, finding that despite considered aggression over food sources, the majority of ant interactions were neutral. Pr
oportion of competitive interactions at bait cards did not differ between forest type, however, the rate and per capita number of competitive interactions was significantly
lower in logged forest. Furthermore, the
majority of genera showed large changes in aggression-score with often inverse relationships to their occupancy rank.
This provides evidence of a shuffled
competitive network, and these unexpected changes in aggressive relationships could
be considered a type of competitive network re-wiring after disturbance.
Date Issued
2018-03-23
Date Acceptance
2018-02-26
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2018, 8
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
8
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre-
ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per-
mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Cre-
ative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not per-
mitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Sponsor
Rainforest Research Sdn Bhd
Grant Number
LBEE_P34395
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
SOUTH-EAST-ASIA
OIL PALM PLANTATION
DOMINANCE TRADE-OFF
RAIN-FOREST
LEAF-LITTER
HYMENOPTERA-FORMICIDAE
MALAYSIAN BORNEO
ANTHROPOGENIC DISTURBANCE
HABITAT DISTURBANCE
ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
5131