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Combined effects of overwintering temperature and habitat degradation on the survival of boreal wood ant

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Abstract

The survival of insects during diapause may be affected by overwintering temperature and other environmental stress, such as anthropogenic habitat degradation. We experimentally studied the effects of overwintering temperature (+1 and +7°C) and commercial forest clear-cutting on the overwintering survival of the forest-dwelling wood ant Formica aquilonia. We found that both the higher overwintering temperature and clear-cutting lowered the overwintering survival and body fat resources of Formica aquilonia. The survival and body fat resources were highest in lower temperature treatment forest nests and lowest in higher temperature treatment clear-cut nests. The overall survival of ants increased with higher body fat resources. It is possible that both forest clear-cutting and higher winter temperature due to possible climate warming may increase the wintertime mortality of wood ants and other forest-dwelling ants.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on the previous draft of this article. T. Eskelinen helped in the field and laboratory. Using ants in this kind of study did not violate any laws of Finland. The study was funded by Kone foundation and Emil Aaltonen’s foundation (JS), and Maj and Thor Nessling’s foundation (S-RV).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Jouni Sorvari, Marja-Katariina Haatanen & Salla-Riikka Vesterlund

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  1. Jouni Sorvari
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  2. Marja-Katariina Haatanen
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  3. Salla-Riikka Vesterlund
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Correspondence to Jouni Sorvari.

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Marja-Katariina Haatanen and Salla-Riikka Vesterlund should be considered as equal authors.

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Sorvari, J., Haatanen, MK. & Vesterlund, SR. Combined effects of overwintering temperature and habitat degradation on the survival of boreal wood ant. J Insect Conserv 15, 727–731 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-010-9372-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-010-9372-5

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