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Chronic anthropogenic disturbance as a secondary driver of ant community structure: interactions with soil type in Brazilian Caatinga

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2016

FERNANDA M. P. OLIVEIRA ,
JOSÉ DOMINGOS RIBEIRO-NETO Open the ORCID record for JOSÉ DOMINGOS RIBEIRO-NETO [Opens in a new window] ,
ALAN N. ANDERSEN  and
INARA R. LEAL
FERNANDA M. P. OLIVEIRA
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690–901, Recife, PE, Brazil Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690–901, Recife, PE, Brazil
JOSÉ DOMINGOS RIBEIRO-NETO
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690–901, Recife, PE, Brazil
ALAN N. ANDERSEN
Affiliation:
CSIRO Land &Water, Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre, PMB 44 Winnellie, NT 0822, Australia
INARA R. LEAL*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Prof. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Cidade Universitária, 50690–901, Recife, PE, Brazil
*
*Correspondence: Inara R. Leal Tel: 55-81-21267814 Fax: 55-81-21268348 e-mail: irleal@ufpe.br
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Summary

Habitat loss is widely recognized as the major cause of global biodiversity decline, but remaining habitat is increasingly threatened by chronic human disturbances. Using a multi-model averaging approach we examined the association between five chronic disturbance surrogates and the richness and taxonomic and functional composition of ants in Brazilian Caatinga. Using pitfall traps in 47 plots near Parnamirim city (Pernambuco) across two soil types (sand and clay), we recorded 53 species from 27 genera. Ant species richness on sand was slightly higher than on clay, and was negatively related to most surrogates of anthropogenic disturbance. Soil type and human population size were the main predictors of ant species richness. Soil type was the most important predictor of functional group abundance. Taxonomic and functional composition were influenced by soil type and disturbance, but this relationship varied between clay and sandy soils. Ant functional composition showed a weak relationship with disturbance on sandy soils, but on clay soils it showed predictable winner–loser replacement. We attribute the greater effect of disturbance on clay soils to higher intensity of land use, and our study highlights the importance of considering context dependence when evaluating biodiversity responses to disturbance.

Keywords

ant diversityant functional groupsbiodiversityhuman disturbancesemi-arid vegetation
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 115 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2016 

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Footnotes

Supplementary material can be found online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0376892916000291

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