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Interactive disturbance effects of two disparate ecosystem engineers in North American shortgrass steppe

  • Plant-Animal Interactions - Original Paper
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Abstract

Disturbances such as fire, grazing, and soil mixing by animals interact to shape vegetation in grassland ecosystems. Animal-generated disturbances are unique in that they arise from a suite of behaviors that are themselves subject to modification by external factors. The manner in which co-occurring animal taxa interact to alter vegetation is a function of their respective behaviors, which shape the characteristics (e.g., the magnitude or extent) of their disturbances. To determine whether prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex occidentalis) interactively alter vegetation structure and heterogeneity on the Colorado shortgrass steppe, we characterized the size, dispersion, and vegetation of prairie dog burrow mounds and ant nests (located on and off prairie dog colonies) and vegetation growing beyond mound and nest perimeters. Ants located on prairie dog colonies engineered significantly larger nests and disturbed nearly twice as much total soil area as their off-colony counterparts. Ant nests were overdispersed both on and off prairie dog colonies, while prairie dog mounds were randomly dispersed. Where harvester ants and prairie dogs co-occur, the overdispersed pattern of on-colony ant nests is in effect “overlaid” onto the random pattern of prairie dog mounds, resulting in a unique, aggregated pattern of soil disturbance. Ant nests on prairie dog colonies had significantly less vegetation and lower plant species diversity than did prairie dog mounds, while off-colony nests were similar to mounds. These results suggest that ant nests are more highly disturbed when located on prairie dog colonies. Beyond nests proper, ants did not appear to alter vegetation in a manner distinct from prairie dogs. As such, the interactive effects of prairie dogs and ants on vegetation arise mainly from the disturbance characteristics of mounds and nests proper.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation through the Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research project (DEB 0217631) and from the John W. Marr fund of the Colorado Native Plant Society. We thank Ruth Hufbauer, Alan Knapp, Amy Blair, Rebecca Kao, Steve Rauth, and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. James Zumbrunnen provided statistical advice and N. Scott Lynn assisted with data analysis. This research was conducted in a manner that complies with current US laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Christina Alba-Lynn & James K. Detling

  2. Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Christina Alba-Lynn & James K. Detling

  3. Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    James K. Detling

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  1. Christina Alba-Lynn
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Correspondence to Christina Alba-Lynn.

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Communicated by Tim Seastedt.

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Alba-Lynn, C., Detling, J.K. Interactive disturbance effects of two disparate ecosystem engineers in North American shortgrass steppe. Oecologia 157, 269–278 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1068-0

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