Ant assemblages in the taiga biome: testing the role of territorial wood ants

Ants were collected with sets of pitfall traps in four coniferous-forest habitats in southern Finland. A three-level competition hierarchy concept was used to generate predictions on ant community structure. The levels of the hierarchy, and the respective predictions, from top to bottom were: (1) Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia 1989-12, Vol.81 (4), p.481-486
Main Authors: Savolainen, R, Vepsalainen, K, Wuorenrinne, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aggression
Animal and plant ecology
animal behavior
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Ants
Biological and medical sciences
Boreal forests
coniferous forests
Demecology
Forest habitats
Forest insects
Formica rufa
Formicidae
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Habitats
Hymenoptera
Insect colonies
Insect communities
Insect ecology
Insect nests
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Synecology
Taigas
Terrestrial ecosystems
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Summary:Ants were collected with sets of pitfall traps in four coniferous-forest habitats in southern Finland. A three-level competition hierarchy concept was used to generate predictions on ant community structure. The levels of the hierarchy, and the respective predictions, from top to bottom were: (1) The dominant territorial wood ants (Formica rufa-group species), expected to exclude each other. (2) The other aggressive species, likely to be excluded by the F. rufa-group. (3) The submissive species, non-aggressive and defending only their nest, and thus likely to coexist with the dominants but in reduced numbers. As expected, the species of the F. rufa-group excluded each other, and the species number of the other aggressive ants was significantly cut down in the presence of the F. rufa-group. The aggressive species F. sanguinea and Camponotus herculeanus showed complementary occurrences with the F. rufa-group, and Lasius niger reduced occurrences. The number of the submissive species was not significantly affected by the F. rufa-group. However, pairwise correlation coefficients were significantly more often negative than positive between presence of the F. rufa-group and average proportion of pitfalls per set with a submissive species, each analyzed in turn. The result indicates that the F. rufa-group also reduced the colony densities of the submissive species. We conclude that in the taiga biome territorial wood ants are, after adjusting for physical vicissitudes of the environment, the major structuring force of ant species assemblages.
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/BF00378955