Response of ants to grazing disturbance at the central Monte Desert (Argentina): community descriptors and functional group scheme

SILVIA CLAVER; LAGOS SILNIK, SUSANA; FERNÁNDEZ CAMPÓN, FLORENCIA

Journal of Arid Land

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Año: 2014 vol. 6 p. 117 - 127

1674-6767

Livestock ranching is one of the main productive activities in arid regions of the world.Grazing produces changes in the animal as well as plant community (e.g., richness, abundances andspecies dominance relationships). Ants are good biological indicators due to the environmentalfidelity of some of their community parameters. We described the functional structure of the antcommunity in the central Monte of Mendoza, Argentina, and examined the effect of grazing usingrichness, diversity index and the functional group scheme. We used pitfall traps to sample ants at areserve with 30-year cattle exclusion and at an adjacent ranch. Eleven of the 27 recorded speciesshowed significant differences in their abundances and two species were absent at the ranch. Whilerichness and diversity did not reflect these differences, functional groups did. Hot Climate Specialistswere more abundant at the ranch while Cryptic Species and Generalized Myrmicinae increased atthe reserve. This study supports the utility of the functional group scheme to study effects of grazingdisturbance in ant communities of arid regions.