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Similar alpha and beta diversity changes in tropical ant communities, comparing savannas and rainforests in Brazil and Indonesia

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Abstract

Local biodiversity can be expected to be similar worldwide if environmental conditions are similar. Here, we hypothesize that tropical ant communities with different types of regional species pools but at similar habitat types in Brazil and Indonesia show similar diversity patterns at multiple spatial scales, when comparing (1) the relative contribution of alpha and beta diversity to gamma diversity; (2) the number of distinct communities (community differentiation); and (3) the drivers of β-diversity (species replacement or species loss/gain) at each spatial scale. In both countries, rainforests and savannas (biome scale) were represented by three landscapes (landscape scale), each with four transects (site scale) and each transect with 10 pitfall traps (local scale). At the local scale, α-diversity was higher and β-diversity lower than expected from null models. Hence, we observed a high coexistence of species across biomes. The replacement of species seemed the most important factor for β-diversity among sites and among landscapes across biomes. Species sorting, landscape-moderated species distribution and neutral drift are potential mechanisms for the high β-diversity among sites within landscapes. At the biome scale, different evolutionary histories produced great differences in ant community composition, so the replacement of species is, at this scale, the most important driver of beta diversity. According to these key findings, we conclude that distinct regional ant species pools from similar tropical habitat types are similarly constrained across several spatial scales, regardless of the continent considered.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Brazilian and Indonesian environmental offices and managers of protected areas that readily processed our sampling licenses requests. We are in debt with O. Efendy (Cibinong Research Center for Biology—LIPI) for kindly helping F.A. Schmidt with all administrative, structural and logistic issues in Indonesia. We are most grateful to several field assistants for their help, specifically to R. Solar and Endang that were kind and friendly company during field expeditions. We are in debt with several colleagues that helped in ant mounting, sorting and identification work, specifically to F. Rezende, R. Jesus, A. Rizali, V. Sandoval and G. Camacho. We are most grateful to F. Neves, J. Louzada, R. Campos, C. Staudhammer and two anonymous referees for the critical reading of previous versions of the manuscript. We thank CAPES, CNPq, FAPEMIG, DAAD and the DFG (CRC 990 EFForTS) for financial support and grants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Entomologia, Departamento de Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, 36570-000, Brazil

    Fernando A. Schmidt

  2. Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, 69920-900, Brazil

    Fernando A. Schmidt

  3. Setor de Ecologia e Conservação, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, MG, 37200-000, Brazil

    Carla R. Ribas

  4. Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, 36570-000, Brazil

    Tathiana G. Sobrinho & José H. Schoereder

  5. Departamento de Ciências Agrárias e Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Centro Universitário Norte do Espírito Santo (UFES/CEUNES), São Mateus, ES, 29932-540, Brazil

    Tathiana G. Sobrinho

  6. Entomology Laboratory, Zoology Division (Mueum Zoologicum Bogoriense), Research Center for Biology, LIPI, Bogor, Indonesia

    Rosichon Ubaidillah

  7. Agroecology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Yann Clough & Teja Tscharntke

  8. Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, Lund University, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Yann Clough

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  1. Fernando A. Schmidt
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Contributions

FAS, CRR, TGS, JHS, YC and TT formulated the idea. FAS conducted the fieldwork, analyzed data and wrote the manuscript. The other authors provided editorial advice.

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Correspondence to Fernando A. Schmidt.

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Communicated by Nina Farwig.

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Schmidt, F.A., Ribas, C.R., Sobrinho, T.G. et al. Similar alpha and beta diversity changes in tropical ant communities, comparing savannas and rainforests in Brazil and Indonesia. Oecologia 185, 487–498 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-017-3960-y

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