Abstract
Habitat loss is a leading cause of extinctions, which may occur even before species are recorded or formally described. On the other hand, limitations in species distribution data and sampling biases can hamper inferences about patterns of species richness that form the basis of conservation strategies. Insects, despite their crucial roles in terrestrial ecosystems, are still largely neglected when dealing with biological inventories. Among insects, ants are of unique importance because of their species richness, widespread distribution, and due to their key ecosystem functions such as seed dispersal, soil nutrient cycling, predation, and biological control. In this study, we prioritize different Brazilian biomes and ecoregions for new ant surveys based on information on the distribution of occurrence records and two estimates of habitat loss for the period between 2000 and 2016. We compiled nearly 8000 ant occurrence records, including a total of 1170 species. The Caatinga was the biome showing the greatest urgency for new inventories, whereas the Atlantic Forest had the lowest urgency. However, there were considerable differences of priority between ecoregions belonging to each biome, thus underscoring the need to pay special attention to these geographical units and their characteristic associated with ant species. The prioritization of poorly studied sites with an imminent risk of habitat loss can be a valuable starting point for filling knowledge gaps and can help in formulating new strategies of conservation. The dataset provided here may also be useful in studies on the distribution of ant diversity in Brazil.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All records compiled in this study are available on the antweb.org platform.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Andersen A (1997) Using ants as bioindicators: multiscale issues in ant community ecology. Conserv Ecol 1(1):8. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00014-010108
Andersen AN (1995) Measuring more of biodiversity: genus richness as a surrogate for species richness in Australian ant faunas. Biol Conserv 73(1):39–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(95)90059-4
Andersen AN, Hoffmann BD, Muller WJ, Griffiths AD (2002) Using ants as bioindicators in land management: simplifying assessment of ant community responses. J Appl Ecol 39:8–17. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00704.x
Arima EY, Barreto P, Araújo E, Soares-Filho B (2014) Public policies can reduce tropical deforestation: lessons and challenges from Brazil. Land Use Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.06.026
Arnan X, Arcoverde GB, Pie MR, Ribeiro-Neto JD, Leal IR (2018) Increased anthropogenic disturbance and aridity reduce phylogenetic and functional diversity of ant communities in Caatinga dry forest. Sci Total Environ 631–632:429–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.037
Barlow J, Lennox GD, Ferreira J et al (2016) Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation. Nature 535:144–147. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18326
Blackburn TM, Gaston KJ (2003) Macroecology: concepts and consequences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Boakes EH, McGowan PJK, Fuller RA, Chang-qing D, Clark NE, O’Connor K, Mace GM (2010) Distorted views of biodiversity: spatial and temporal bias in species occurrence data. PLoS Biol 8(6):e1000385. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000385
Boitani L, Maiorano L, Baisero D, Falcucci A, Visconti P, Rondinini C (2011) What spatial data do we need to develop global mammal conservation strategies? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 366:2623–2632. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0117
Bolton B (2020) An online catalog of the ants of the world. http://antcat.org. Accessed 20 Apr 2020
Brancalion PHS, Garcia LC, Loyola R, Rodrigues RR, Pillar VD, Lewinsohn TM (2016) A critical analysis of the native vegetation protection law of Brazil 2012: updates and ongoing initiatives. Nat Conserv 14:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ncon.2016.03.003
Brandão CRF, Silva RR, Feitosa RM (2011) Brazilian Savanna ground-dwelling ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) as indicators of edge effects. Zoologia 28:379–387. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-46702011000300012
Brito D (2010) Overcoming the Linnean shortfall: data deficiency and biological survey priorities. Basic Appl Ecol 11(8):709–713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2010.09.007
Brooks TM, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, da Fonseca GAB, Rylands AB, Konstant WR, Flick P, Pilgrim J, Oldfield S, Magin G, Hilton-Taylor C (2002) Habitat loss and extinction in the hotspots of biodiversity. Conserv Biol 16(4):909–923. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2002.00530.x
Brown JH (1995) Macroecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Butchart SHM, Walpole M, Collen B et al (2010) Global biodiversity: indicators of recent declines. Science 328:1164–1168. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1187512
Carneiro ES, Mielke O, Casagrande MM (2008) Butterfly inventories in Brazil: the state of the art and the priority-areas model for research aiming at conservation. Nat Conserv 6(2):176–198
Caro T, Dobson A, Marshall AJ, Peres CA (2014) Compromise solutions between conservation and road building in the tropics. Curr Biol 24(16):722–725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.007
Clark RW, Brown WS, Stechert R, Zamudio KR (2010) Roads, interrupted dispersal, and genetic diversity in timber rattlesnakes: roads and population genetics. Conserv Biol 24(4):1059–1069. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01439.x
Costa GC, Nogueira C, Machado RB, Colli GR (2010) Sampling bias and the use of ecological niche modeling in conservation planning: a field evaluation in a biodiversity hotspot. Biodivers Conserv 19:883–899. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9746-8
Currie CR (2001) A community of ants, fungi, and bacteria: a multilateral approach to studying symbiosis. Annu Rev Microbiol 55:357–380. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.micro.55.1.357
Dáttilo W, Guimarães PR, Izzo TJ (2013) Spatial structure of ant-plant mutualistic networks. Oikos 122(11):1643–1648. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2013.00562.x
Donaldson MR, Burnett NJ, Braun DC, Suski CD, Hinch SG, Cooke SJ, Kerr JT (2016) Taxonomic bias and international biodiversity conservation research. FACETS 1(1):105–113. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2016-0011
Dröse W, Podgaiski LR, Cavalleri A, Feitosa RM, Mendonca JM (2017) Ground-dwelling and vegetation ant fauna in southern Brazilian grasslands. Sociobiology 64(4):381–392. https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v64i4.1795
Dunn RR, Agosti D, Andersen AN et al (2009) Climatic drivers of hemispheric asymmetry in global patterns of ant species richness. Ecol Lett 12:324–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01291.x
Dunn RR, Sanders NJ, Fitzpatrick MC et al (2007) Global ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) biodiversity and biogeography: a new database and its possibilities. Myrm News 10:77–83
Dupin MGV, Espírito-Santo MM, Leite ME, Silva JO, Rocha AM, Barbosa RS, Felisa AC (2018) Land use policies and deforestation in Brazilian tropical dry forests between 2000 and 2015. Environ Res Lett 13(3):035008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaadea
Engemann K, Enquist BJ, Sandel B, Boyle B, Jørgensen PM, Morueta-Holme N, Peet RK, Violle C, Svenning JC (2015) Limited sampling hampers “big data” estimation of species richness in a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Ecol Evol 5(3):807–820. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1405
Floren AD, Linsenmair KE (2001) The influence of anthropogenic disturbances on the structure of arboreal arthropod communities. Plant Ecol 153:153–167. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017510312462
Folgarait PJ (1998) Ant biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem functioning: a review. Biodiver Conserv 7:1221–1244. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008891901953
Frederickson ME, Greene MJ, Gordon DM (2005) ‘Devil’s gardens’ bedevilled by ants: ecology. Nature 437:495–496. https://doi.org/10.1038/437495a
García A (2006) Using ecological niche modelling to identify diversity hotspots for the herpetofauna of Pacific lowlands and adjacent interior valleys of Mexico. Biol Conserv 130:25–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2005.11.030
Giam X (2017) Global biodiversity loss from tropical deforestation. Proc Natl Acad Sci 114(23):5775–5777. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706264114
Gonthier DJ, Ennis KK, Philpott SM, Vandermeer J, Perfecto I (2013) Ants defend coffee from berry borer colonization. BioControl 58:815–820. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-013-9541-z
Grand J, Cummings MP, Rebelo TG, Ricketts TH, Neel MC (2007) Biased data reduce efficiency and effectiveness of conservation reserve networks. Ecol Lett 10(5):364–374. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01025.x
Guénard B, Weiser MD, Dunn RR (2012) Global models of ant diversity suggest regions where new discoveries are most likely are under disproportionate deforestation threat. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(19):7368–7373. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1113867109
Hansen MC, Potapov PV, Moore R, Hancher M, Turubanova SA, Tyukavina A, Thau D, Stehman SV, Goetz SJ, Loveland TR, Kommareddy A, Egorov A, Chini L, Justice CO, Townshend JRG (2013) High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change. Science 342(6169):850–853. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1244693
Hanski I (2011) Habitat loss, the dynamics of biodiversity, and a perspective on conservation. AMBIO 40:248–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0147-3
Hortal J, Lobo JM, Jiménez-Valverde A (2007) Limitations of biodiversity databases: case study on seed-plant diversity in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Conserv Biol 21(3):853–863. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00686.x
Jory TT, Feitosa R (2020) First survey of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of piauí: filling a major knowledge gap about ant diversity in Brazil. Pap Avuls Zool 60:e20206014. https://doi.org/10.11606/1807-0205/2020.60.14
Kadmon R, Farber O, Danin A (2004) Effect of roadside bias on the accuracy of predictive maps produced by bioclimatic models. Ecol Appl 14:401–413. https://doi.org/10.1890/02-5364
Kaspari M, Majer JD (2000) Using ants to monitor environmental change. In: Agosti D, Majer JD, Alonso LE, Schultz TR (eds) Ants: standard methods for measuring and monitoring biodiversity. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 89–98
Kaspari M, O’Donnell S, Kercher JR (2000) Energy, density, and constraints to species richness: ant assemblages along a productivity gradient. Am Nat 155:280–293. https://doi.org/10.2307/3078948
Lassau SA, Hochuli DF (2004) Effects of habitat complexity on ant assemblages. Ecography 27:157–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0906-7590.2004.03675.x
Laurance WF, Goosem M, Laurance SGW (2009) Impacts of roads and linear clearings on tropical forests. Trends Ecol Evol 24:659–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2009.06.009
Leal IR, Ribeiro-Neto JD, Arnan X, Oliveira FMP, Arcoverde GB, Feitosa RM, Andersen AN (2017) Ants of the Caatinga: diversity, biogeography, and functional responses to anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. In: da Silva JMC, Leal IR, Tabarelli M (eds) Caatinga: the largest tropical dry forest region in South America, Switzerland. Springer, New York, pp 65–95
May RM (2011) Why worry about how many species and their loss? PLoS Biol 9:e1001130. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001130
McKinney ML (2006) Urbanization as a major cause of biotic homogenization. Biol Conserv 127(3):247–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2005.09.005
Meyer C, Kreft H, Guralnick R, Jetz W (2015) Global priorities for an effective information basis of biodiversity distributions. Nat Commun 6:8221. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9221
Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, Gil PR, Pilgrim J, Fonseca G (2002) Wilderness: earth’s last wild places. CEMEX, Mexico City
Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, da Fonseca GAB, Kent J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403:853–858. https://doi.org/10.1038/35002501
Offenberg J (2015) Ants as tools in sustainable agriculture. J Appl Ecol 52(5):1197–1205. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12496
Oliveira U, Paglia AP, Brescovit AD, de Carvalho CJB, Silva DP, Rezende DT, Leite FSF, Batista JAN, Barbosa JPPP, Stehmann JR, Ascher JS, de Vasconcelos MF, De Marco P, Löwenberg-Neto P, Dias PG, Ferro VG, Santos AJ (2016) The strong influence of collection bias on biodiversity knowledge shortfalls of Brazilian terrestrial biodiversity. Divers Distrib 22:1232–1244. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12489
Olson DM, Dinerstein E, Wikramanayake ED, Burgess ND, Powell GVN, Underwood EC, D’amico JA, Itoua I, Strand HE, Morrison JC, Loucks CJ, Allnutt TF, Ricketts TH, Kura Y, Lamoreux JF, Wettengel WW, Hedao P, Kassem KR (2001) Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on earth. Bioscience 51(11):933–938. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0933:TEOTWA]2.0.CO;2
Overbeck GE, Vélez-Martin E, Scarano FR, Lewinsohn TM, Fonseca CR, Meyer ST, Müller SC, Ceotto P, Dadalt L, Durigan G, Ganade G, Gossner MM, Guadagnin DL, Lorenzen K, Jacobi CM, Weisser WW, Pillar VD (2015) Conservation in Brazil needs to include non-forest ecosystems. Divers Distrib 21(12):1455–1460. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12380
Prado DE (2003) As caatingas da américa do Sul. In: Leal IR, Tabarelli M, Silva JMC (ed) Ecologia e conservação da caatinga. Ed. Universitária da UFPE, Recife, pp 3–73
Quantum GIS Development Team (2015) QGIS GeographicInformation System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project. https://www.qgis.org Accessed 23 June 2017
R Development Core Team (2015) R: a Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. https://www.r-project.org. Accessed 10 May 2017
Ram K (2014) AntWeb: programmatic interface to the AntWeb. R package version 0.6.7
Ribas CR, Sobrinho TG, Schoereder JH, Sperber CF, Lopes-Andrade C, Soares SM (2005) How large is large enough for insects? Forest fragmentation effects at three spatial scales. Acta Oecol 27(1):31–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2004.08.008
Ribas C, Campos R, Schmidt F, Solar R (2012) Review article ants as indicators in Brazil: a review with suggestions to improve the use of ants in environmental monitoring programs. Psyche: J Entomol. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/636749
Santos J, Leal I, Almeida-Cortez J, Fernandes G, Tabarelli M (2011) Caatinga: the scientific negligence experienced by a dry tropical forest. Trop Conserv Sci 4:276–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/194008291100400306
Schultz TR, Brady SG (2008) Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105(14):5435–5440. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0711024105
Schultz TR (2000) In search of ant ancestors. Proc Natl Acad Sci 97(26):14028–14029. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.011513798
Silva RR, Brandão CRF (2010) Morphological patterns and community organization in leaf-litter ant assemblages. Ecol Monogr 80(1):107–124. https://doi.org/10.1890/08-1298.1
Silva RR, Brandão CRF (2014) Ecosystem-wide morphological structure of leaf-litter ant communities along a tropical latitudinal gradient. PLoS ONE 9:e93049. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093049
Silva RR, Feitosa RSM, Eberhardt F (2007) Reduced ant diversity along a habitat regeneration gradient in the southern Brazilian Atlantic forest. For Ecol Manage 240:61–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2006.12.002
Smith J, Letten AD, Ke PJ, Anderson C et al (2018) A global test of ecoregions. Nat Ecol Evol 2:1889–1896. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0709-x
Soberón JM, Llorente JB, Oñate L (2000) The use of specimen-label databases for conservation purposes: an example using Mexican papilionid and pierid butterflies. Biodivers Conserv 9:1441–1466. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008987010383
Soberón J, Jiménez R, Golubov J, Koleff P (2007) Assessing completeness of biodiversity databases at different spatial scales. Ecography 30(1):152–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0906-7590.2007.04627.x
Sousa-Baena MS, Garcia LC, Peterson AT (2014) Completeness of digital accessible knowledge of the plants of Brazil and priorities for survey and inventory. Divers Distrib 20(4):369–381. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12136
Underwood EC, Fisher BL (2006) The role of ants in conservation monitoring: if, when, and how. Biol Conserv 132(2):166–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2006.03.022
Vale MM, Jenkins CN (2012) Across-taxa incongruence in patterns of collecting bias. J Biogeogr 39(9):1743–1748. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02750.x
Vasconcelos HL, Maravalhas JB, Feitosa RM, Pacheco R, Neves KC, Andersen AN (2018) Neotropical savanna ants show a reversed latitudinal gradient of species richness, with climatic drivers reflecting the forest origin of the fauna. J Biogeogr 45(1):248–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13113
Vasconcelos HL, Vilhena JM, Facure KG, Albernaz AL (2010) Patterns of ant species diversity and turnover across 2000 km of Amazonian floodplain forest. J Biogeogr 37:432–440. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02230.x
Ward PS, Branstetter MG (2017) The acacia ants revisited: convergent evolution and biogeographic context in an iconic ant/plant mutualism. Proc R Soc B 284:20162569. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2569
Acknowledgements
We thank Eduardo Carneiro dos Santos, Thiago J. Izzo, Mariane A. Nickele, Fernanda T. Brum, and Renattho Nitz Oliveira for their contributions and comments during the development of this work.
Funding
This study was funded by Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). RMF was supported by the Brazilian Council of Research and Scientific Development (CNPq, Grant 302462/2016-3).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interests
The authors declare no potential conflict of interests in this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Divieso, R., Rorato, A., Feitosa, R.M. et al. How to prioritize areas for new ant surveys? Integrating historical data on species occurrence records and habitat loss. J Insect Conserv 24, 901–911 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00262-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00262-y