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Some effects of vegetation cover and disturbance on a tropical ant fauna

Influence des types de couverture végétale et de leurs modifications sur des Fourmis tropicales

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Summary

Ants were studied on three sites on the north coast of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands: 1, a shifting cultivation sequence of forest, bare ground shortly after forest had been cleared and a subsistence graden; 2, in a coconut plantation, a ground cover trial comprising a cover crop and grasses; 3, also in a coconut plantation a transect which crossed a vegetation discontinuity. The objects were to assess the effects of disturbance (clearing or cultivation), and of different types of vegetation cover on the composition of the ant fauna of the ground layer, and to investigate aspects of competition between ground-living and arboreal species. Ants were sampled by extracting soil and litter in Tullgren funnels, hand-sorting quadrats of turf and litter, qualitative hand collections and by using syrup baits. The open, non-forest sites were occupied by essentially a single fauna in which species with wide distributions in the Pacific were prominent. This fauna also penetrated forest where there were additional exclusive species. The numbers of species in different habitats generally increased with increasing mass of vegetation, although there was a reduction in areas of dense, long grass. Outside forest the most diverse fauna, with 7–12 species per 0.37 m2 quadrat, was found in the transect, the least disturbed habitat. Here a high density of nests of certain ground-living species and the consequent accessiblity of resources on the ground would account for the success of these species in diffuse competition with dominant ants having less frequent nests.

Résumé

Le but du présent travail consiste à mettre en évidence, d'une part l'effet de plusieurs types de végétation couvrant le sol et, d'autre part celui de leurs modifications par défrichement ou culture sur la composition de la faune en Fourmis terricoles. On examine aussi quelques aspects de la concurrence entre espèces terricoles et arboricoles. Pour ce faire, on a observé les Fourmis peuplant 3 milieux de la côte nord de Guadalcanal dans les îles Salomon. Ces milieux consistent: 1) en une série de cultures variées comprenant de la forêt, des terres dénudées peu après arasement de la forêt et en un petit jardin cultivé d'une surface d'un hectare environ; 2) dans une plantation de cocotiers, un essai de recouvrement du sol réalisé à l'aide de plantes cultivées et d'herbes diverses; 3) dans cette même plantation, en diverses zones de végétations dissemblables à travers lesquelles un transect consistant en 18 quadrats contigus a été réalisé.

Les Fourmis ont été récoltées dans des échantillons de terre et de litière de feuilles soit à l'aide d'entonnoir Tullgren, soit en triant à la main les Fourmis contenues dans des quadrats de gazon, ces échantillons de gazon ayant été récoltés manuellement selon une procédure quantitative, soit enfin en se servant d'appâts constitués par des boîtes contenant du sirop.

Les milieux déforestés sont principalement peuplés d'un seul type de faune incluant nombre d'espèces très répandues dans le Pacifique. Cette faune pénètre aussi en forêt où se trouvent d'autres Fourmis caractéristiques de ce milieu. L'augmentation du nombre d'espèces dans ces différents habitats est généralement corrélée avec celle de la biomasse végétale, bien que l'on constate une diminution dans la zone couverte d'herbes hautes. En dehors de la forêt, la faune la plus diversifiée, avec 7 à 12 espèces par quadrat de 0,37 m2, fut localisée dans le transect, c'est-à-dire dans le milieu le moins perturbé. Dans ce milieu, les hautes densités mesurées chez certains terricoles et l'accès aux ressources du sol qui en découle expliqueraient le succès de ces espèces dans la compétition diffuse qui les oppose aux Fourmis dominantes présentant des densités moins élevées.

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Greenslade, P.J.M., Greenslade, P. Some effects of vegetation cover and disturbance on a tropical ant fauna. Ins. Soc 24, 163–182 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02227169

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02227169

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