Temperature Influence on Species Co-Occurrence Patterns in Treefall Gap and Dense Forest Ant Communities in a Terra- Firme Forest of Central Amazon, Brazil

• Main Authors: Wesley Dáttilo, Thiago Junqueira Izzo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana 2014-09-01
• Series: Sociobiology
• Subjects: Tropical Rain Forest; Formicidae; Microclimatic factors; Competition; Diversity.
• Online Access: http://periodicos.uefs.br/index.php/sociobiology/article/view/599
• ISSN: 0361-6525; 2447-8067

In this study we evaluated the influence of temperature and species co-occurrence on the structure of an ant community of treefall gaps and surrounding dense forests in a terra-firme forest of Central Amazon, Brazil. For this, we collected ants at different hours, and at the time of each collection we measured the temperature of the environment. Even with the difference in the temperature variation and variation throughout the day, there was no difference in the richness and abundance of ants among the environments. Also, the ant species are distributed randomly and independently of one another in both studied environments in accordance with a null model (C-score). However, although not influenced by temperature, the ant composition of treefall gaps was different from the ant community of the surrounding dense forest. Possibly the composition and ant foraging in environments of treefall gaps and surrounding dense forests are not only influenced by temperature, but also by the interaction of this factor with the structural complexity of vegetation in terms of sites available for nesting and feeding, and other microclimatic factors. This generates a difference in ant composition of both environments. In addition, the structuring of ant community in tropical rain forests may actually be stochastic or neutral within each environment.