Competition for food and nesting resources in arboreal ant communities is higher in lowland than in mid-elevation rainforests

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60077344%3A_____%2F25%3A00616864" target="_blank" >RIV/60077344:_____/25:00616864 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60076658:12310/25:43909907

Result on the web

<a href="https://myrmecologicalnews.org/cms/index.php?option=com_download&view=download&filename=volume35/mn35_73-87_printable.pdf&format=raw" target="_blank" >https://myrmecologicalnews.org/cms/index.php?option=com_download&view=download&filename=volume35/mn35_73-87_printable.pdf&format=raw</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_035:073" target="_blank" >10.25849/myrmecol.news_035:073</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Competition for food and nesting resources in arboreal ant communities is higher in lowland than in mid-elevation rainforests

Original language description

Competition is one of the most intriguing ecological concepts as it is ubiquitous in nature but challenging to quantify. Tropical arboreal ants are known to compete for food resources and nesting space, with some species maintaining large colonies and territories. However, little is known about how elevation and forest stratification influence this competition at the community level. We hypothesize that ant competition is mediated by temperature and therefore expect it to increase in the warmer lowland rainforests compared with mid-elevations. We also expect that temperature should lead to higher competition in forest canopies compared with smaller understorey trees due to warmer microclimate. We measured resource competition by placing baits (food resource) and bamboo cavities (nesting resource) in the natural rainforest of Mt. Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea. These artificial resources were distributed in both canopy and understorey trees across four sites in each of two locations: lowland (ca. 200 m above sea level, a.s.l.) and mid-elevation (ca. 900 m a.s.l.) forests. We recorded a total of 89 ant species on the baits and 33 species inside the cavities, and each resource measured a complementary part of the community. Mid-elevation sites had significantly higher ant species diversity and species co-occurrence on baits but much lower occupation and abundance both on the baits and in the cavities. This indicated a stronger competition in the lowland than mid-elevation communities, despite the higher ant diversity in the latter. Canopies showed a higher competition than understorey, reflected by higher occupancies of both cavities and baits. Moreover, behaviourally dominant territorial species were much more common on baits in the lowlands than mid-elevations. While the two locations did not differ in the forest structure (i.e., tree size, lianas, and dead wood), the lowlands were ca. 4 °C warmer. We hypothesize that the lowland dominance of aggressive ants, possibly maintained by this warmer climate, plays an underappreciated role in elevational community assembly. We conclude that temperature-mediated competition is thus the most likely driver of the observed differences in ant community structure between the two elevations.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA21-00828S" target="_blank" >GA21-00828S: Does competition really structure ant communities in tropical forest canopies?</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Myrmecological News

ISSN

1994-4136

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

35

Issue of the periodical within the volume

17 Feb

Country of publishing house

AT - AUSTRIA

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

73-87

UT code for WoS article

001510228400002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105016853544