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Effects of the ants Formica sanguinea, Lasius niger, and Tetramorium cf. caespitum on soil properties in an ore-washery sedimentation basin

  • Soils, Sec 4 • Ecotoxicology • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Research has shown that ants are tolerant of environmental pollution and improve the quality of polluted substrates at industrial sites. Here, we assessed the effects of ants on microbial biomass and activity and on the contents of organic matter, nutrients, and heavy metals in an ore-washery sedimentation basin. We also determined whether the effects of ant species were associated with differences in feeding preference and nest construction.

Materials and methods

We examined the effects of Formica sanguinea, Lasius niger, and Tetramorium cf. caespitum on a substrate polluted by high heavy metal contents in an ore-washery sedimentation basin near Chvaletice in the Czech Republic. We collected soil samples from the center of nests and in the surroundings (>3 m from nests) in September 2014 and determined their texture, pH, microbial biomass and activity, and contents of organic matter, mineral nutrients, and heavy metals.

Results and discussion

The properties of ant nests were generally similar to those of the surrounding soil except that microbial activity and the contents of total nitrogen, ammonia, and potassium were higher in F. sanguinea nests than in the surrounding soil. Heavy metal content, which was previously reported to be reduced in ant nests because of buffering by basic cations and because of increased porosity, was not lower in nests than in the surrounding soil.

Conclusions

Nest properties were affected more by F. sanguinea than by L. niger or T. cf. caespitum, probably because F. sanguinea uses substantial quantities of organic matter in constructing its nests, stores debris in the nests, and prefers insects as a food source. The failure to detect additional significant effects of ants might be explained by the high heterogeneity of the substrate and the possibility that the nests were too young to have significantly affected many substrate properties.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the University of Hradec Králové (Specific Research no. 2114, 2014), Charles University in Prague (project GA UK No. 574213), Czech Academy of Sciences (L200961602) and SoWa RI (LM2015075). Some of the laboratory equipment for this study was purchased from the Operational Programme Prague-Competitiveness (project CZ.2.16/3.1.00/21516). We thank Martin Bartuška and Markéta Dvořáčková for help with substrate sampling, Hana Šimáčková for laboratory analyses, and Pavel Kovář and Ota Rauch for valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Biology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Veronika Jílková & Jan Frouz

  2. Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Veronika Jílková & Jan Frouz

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

    Pavel Pech

  4. Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Resources, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Martin Mihaljevič

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  1. Veronika Jílková
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Correspondence to Veronika Jílková.

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Responsible editor: Qiaoyun Huang

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Jílková, V., Pech, P., Mihaljevič, M. et al. Effects of the ants Formica sanguinea, Lasius niger, and Tetramorium cf. caespitum on soil properties in an ore-washery sedimentation basin. J Soils Sediments 17, 2127–2135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-017-1667-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-017-1667-7

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