Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:51:36.627Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of habitat disturbance on ant community composition and seed dispersal by ants in a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

Tamara J. Zelikova  and
Michael D. Breed
Tamara J. Zelikova*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCB 334, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80306, USA
Michael D. Breed
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCB 334, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80306, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Habitat alteration can have far-reaching consequences for natural communities and can alter existing species interactions in profound ways. Working in a tropical dry forest ecosystem in the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica, we measured seed removals and seed dispersal distances for Acacia collinsii and papaya seeds to determine if habitat disturbance affects ant community composition and the associated interactions between ants and seeds. Two hundred and forty experimental seed depots were observed in four sites that differed in land-use history and disturbance severity: secondary forest, forest edge, Acacia collinsii edge, and open-pasture. Both seed removals and average dispersal distances achieved by ants differed among habitats. Habitat disturbance did not negatively affect seed removals by ants in our study; seed removals were highest in the most disturbed habitat, the open pasture (38.3% of seeds removed within 2 h). Ant community composition and the relative abundance of key seed dispersers also differed among habitats. In all sites combined, ten species of ant were observed dispersing seeds, with two species, Pheidole fallax and Ectatomma ruidum, in combination being responsible for 92% of all observed seed removals. The abundance of P. fallax and E. ruidum differed among habitats, with E. ruidum being the most abundant ant species collected in the open-pasture habitat and P. fallax being the most abundant in the edge habitats. Pheidole fallax ants dispersed seeds significantly further (mean ± SD = 2.11 ± 1.35 m, maximum = 5.2 m) than did E. ruidum (mean ± SD = 0.7 ± 0.81 m, maximum = 3.85 m), a difference we attribute to recruitment behaviour and not body size. Habitat disturbance thus alters the ant community and the relative abundance of key seed-dispersing ant species, with cascading effects on seed removals and seed dispersal distances.

Keywords

Acacia collinsiiantsdisturbanceEctatomma ruidumPheidole fallaxseed dispersal
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , May 2008 , pp. 309 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ANDERSEN, A. N. 1988. Dispersal distance as a benefit of myrmecochory. Oecologia 75:507–511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
BEATTIE, A. J. 1985. The evolutionary ecology of ant-plant mutualisms. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 204 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BEATTIE, A. J. & CULVER, D. C. 1981. The guild of myrmecochores in the herbaceous flora of West Virginia forests. Ecology 62:107–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BOSSARD, C. C. 1991. The role of habitat disturbance, seed predation, and ant dispersal on establishment of the exotic schrub Cytisus scoparium in California. American Midland Naturalist 126:1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BREED, M. D., ABEL, P., BLEUZE, T. J. & DENTON, S. E. 1990. Thievery, home ranges, and nestmate recognition in Ectatomma ruidum. Oecologia 84:117–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CARNEY, S. E., BYERLEY, M. B. & HOLWAY, D. A. 2003. Invasive Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) do not replace native ants as seed dispersers of Dendromecon rigida. Oecologia 135:576–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHAO, A., CHAZDON, R. L., COLWELL, R. K. & SHEN, T. J. 2005. A new statistical approach for assessing compositional similarity based on incidence and abundance data. Ecology Letters 8:148–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHAPMAN, C. A., CHAPMAN, L. J., VULINEC, K., ZANNE, A. & LAWES, M. J. 2003. Fragmentation and alteration of seed dispersal processes: an initial evaluation of dung beetles, seed fate, and seedling diversity. Biotropica 35:382–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHAPMAN, R. E. & BOURKE, A. F. G. 2001. The influence of sociality on the conservation biology of social insects. Ecology Letters 4:650–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHRISTIAN, C. E. 2001. Consequences of a biological invasion reveal the importance of mutualism for plant communities. Nature 413:635–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CHRISTIANINI, A. V., MAYHE-NUNES, A. J. & OLIVEIRA, P. S. 2007. The role of ants in the removal of non-myrmecochorous diaspores and seed germination in a Neotropical savanna. Journal of Tropical Ecology 23:343–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DALLING, J. W. & WIRTH, R. 1998. Dispersal of Miconia argentea by the leaf-cutting ant Atta columbica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 14:705–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DUNN, R. R., GROVE, A., BARRACLOUGH, T. G., GIVNISH, T. J. & MAJER, J. D. 2007. Convergent evolution of an ant-plant mutualism across plant families, continents, and time. Evolutionary Ecology Research 9:1–14.Google Scholar
GILADI, I. 2006. Choosing benefits or partners: a review of the evidence for the evolution of myrmecochory. Oikos 112:481–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GORB, S. N. & GORB, E. V. 1999. Effects of ant species composition on seed removal in deciduous forest in eastern Europe. Oikos 84:110–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HORVITZ, C. C. & BEATTIE, A. J. 1980. Ant dispersal of Calathea (Marantaceae) seeds by carnivorous ponerines (Formicidae) in a tropical rain forest. American Journal of Botany 67:321–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HORVITZ, C. C. & SCHEMSKE, D. W. 1986. Seed dispersal of a Neotropical myrmecochore: variation in removal rates and dispersal distance. Biotropica 18:319–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HUGHES, L. & WESTOBY, M. 1992. Effect of diaspore characteristics on removal of seeds adapted for dispersal by ants. Ecology 73:1300–1312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ITZKOWITZ, M. & HALEY, M. 1983. The food retrieval tactics of the ant Pheidole fallax Mayr. Insectes Sociaux 30:317–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JANZEN, D. H. 1966. Coevolution of mutualism between ants and acacias in Central America. Evolution 20:249–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
JANZEN, D. H. 1983. Costa Rican natural history. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 823 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JANZEN, D. H. 1988. Management of habitat fragments in a tropical dry forest: growth. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Gardens 76:105–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JORDANO, P. & SCHUPP, E. W. 2000. Seed disperser effectiveness: the quantity component and patterns of seed rain for Prunus mahaleb. Ecological Monographs 70:591–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KALITZ, S., HANZAWA, F. M., TONSOR, S. J., THIEDE, D. A. & VOUGT, S. 1999. Ant-mediated seed dispersal alters pattern of relatedness in a population of Trillium grandiflorum. Ecology 80:2620–2634.Google Scholar
KASPARI, M. 1996. Worker size and seed size selection by harvester ants in a Neotropical forest. Oecologia 105:397–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEAL, N. R., WIRTH, R. & TABARELLI, M. 2007. Seed dispersal by ants in the semi-arid Caatinga of North-east Brazil. Annals of Botany 99:885–894.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LEVEY, D. J. & BYRNE, M. M. 1993. Complex ant-plant interactions: rain forest ants as secondary dispersers and post-dispersal seed predators. Ecology 74:1802–1812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEVEY, D. J., BOLKER, B. M., TEWKSBURY, J. J., SARGENT, S. & HADDAD, N. M. 2005. Effects of landscape corridors on seed dispersal by birds. Science 309:146–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MANZANEDA, A. J., REY, P. J. & BOULAY, R. 2007. Geographic and temporal variation in the ant-seed dispersal assemblage of the perennial herb Helleborus foetidus L. (Ranunculaceae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 92:135–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NESS, J. H. 2004. Forest edges and fire ants alter the seed shadow of an ant-dispersed plant. Oecologia 138:448–454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NESS, J. H., BRONSTEIN, J. J., ANDERSEN, A. N. & HOLLAND, J. N. 2004. Ant body size predicts dispersal distance of ant-adapted seeds: implications of small-ant invasions. Ecology 85:1244–1250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PIZO, M. A. 2007. The use of seeds by a twig-dwelling ant on the floor of a tropical rain forest. Biotropica: online.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PIZO, M. A. & OLIVEIRA, P. S. 1998. Interaction between ants and seeds of a nonmyrmecochorous neotropical tree, Cabralea canjerana (Meliaceae) in the Atlantic forest of southeast Brazil. American Journal of Botany 85:669–674.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PIZO, M. A. & OLIVEIRA, P. S. 2001. Size and lipid content of non-myrmecochorous diaspores: effects on the interaction with litter-foraging ants in the Atlantic rain forest of Brazil. Plant Ecology 157:37–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRATT, S. C. 1989. Recruitment and other communication behaviour in the ponerine ants Ectatomma ruidum. Ethology 81:313–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RESTREPO, C. & GOMEZ, N. 1998. Responses of understory birds to anthropogenic edges in a Neotropical montane forest. Ecological Applications 8:170–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SUAREZ, A. V., DE MORAES, C. & IPPOLITO, A. 1998. Defense of Acacia collinsii by an obligate and nonobligate ant species: the significance of encroaching vegetation. Biotropica 30:480–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WANG, B. C. & SMITH, T. B. 2002. Closing the seed dispersal loop. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17:379–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar