Abstract
Canopy ecology is a fast-growing field, but still a scientific frontier in many ecological aspects. For instance, the hypothesis that tree traits shape patterns in ant-plant interactions lacks data, notably for tropical canopies in different successional stages. In this study, we investigated canopy traits, such as tree height, the presence of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), connectivity among tree crowns, and successional stage, structure ant-tree interactions in a tropical dry forest (TDF), examining whether these are the determinant factors for ant species richness. We collected ants on trees in early and late successional stages over 2 years, in rainy and dry seasons. In the late successional stage, ant species richness was greater in the taller trees; in the early successional stage, the smallest trees had a greater ant species richness than the taller trees. The EFNs and connectivity among treetops had no effect on ant species richness. We obtained a tree-ant network of the early successional stage, involving 786 interactions among 57 ant species and 75 trees; in the late successional stage, the network had 914 interactions among 60 ant species and 75 trees. There were 27 species of trees in our study, 11 of which (40.7% of all individual trees) had EFNs. The ant-plant interactions were not randomly distributed, suggesting that various biotic factors structured the ant assemblies. This study presents new insights into ant-tree interactions, showing that both tree height and successional stage influence the occurrence of many species of ants in tree canopies of tropical dry forests.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank L.E. Macedo-Reis, C.R.O. Leal, G.R. Monteiro, S.M. Novais, L.A. Evangelista, L.F. Silva, and F.S. Castro for fieldwork support, and the Unimontes teams, led by M. Espírito Santo and Y. Nunes, for tree identification. We gratefully acknowledge the staff of the Instituto Estadual de Florestas (IEF-MG) for the fieldwork and logistical support. This study was in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master’s degree of RA and RNSG at Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros. We are indebted to R. Probst, F. Camarota, R.B.F. Campos, and L.S. Rodrigues da Silva for confirming species identifications. We thank T. S. Joaqui for the translation of the text into English, D. Spaan for kindly revising the English grammar and spelling, and M. Fagundes, F. Camarota, A.B. Viana-Jr., and P. Luna for suggestions and constructive comments. We also thank four anonymous reviewers for significantly improving our manuscript.
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We are thankful for the financial support provided by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), the Coordenação de Apoio ao Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and Rede Matas Secas.
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Antoniazzi, R., Garro, R.N.S.L., Dáttilo, W. et al. Ant species richness and interactions in canopies of two distinct successional stages in a tropical dry forest. Sci Nat 106, 20 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-019-1614-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-019-1614-0