Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland
Understanding the underlying mechanisms causing diversity patterns is a fundamental objective in ecology and science-based conservation biology. Energy and environmental-heterogeneity hypotheses have been suggested to explain spatial changes in ant diversity. However, the relative roles of each one...
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2018
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| Acceso en línea: | https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos |
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paper:paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos2025-07-30T18:51:51Z Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland diversity patterns energy environmental heterogeneity nestedness turnover ant conservation status environmental factor environmental gradient grassland longitudinal gradient nestedness pitfall trap species diversity species richness Argentina Pampas Formicidae Hymenoptera Understanding the underlying mechanisms causing diversity patterns is a fundamental objective in ecology and science-based conservation biology. Energy and environmental-heterogeneity hypotheses have been suggested to explain spatial changes in ant diversity. However, the relative roles of each one in determining alpha and beta diversity patterns remain elusive. We investigated the main factors driving spatial changes in ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) species richness and composition (including turnover and nestedness components) along a 500 km longitudinal gradient in the Pampean region of Argentina. Ants were sampled using pitfall traps in 12 sample sites during the summer. We performed a model selection approach to analyse responses of ant richness and composition dissimilarity to environmental factors. Then, we computed a dissimilarity partitioning of the contributions of spatial turnover and nestedness to total composition dissimilarity. Temporal habitat heterogeneity and temperature were the primary factors explaining spatial patterns of epigean ant species richness across the Pampas. The distance decay in species composition similarity was best accounted by temperature dissimilarity, and turnover had the greatest contribution to the observed beta diversity pattern. Our findings suggest that both energy and environmental-heterogeneity-related variables are key factors shaping richness patterns of ants and niche-based processes instead of neutral processes appear to be regulating species composition of ant assemblages. The major contribution of turnover to the beta diversity pattern indicated that lands for potential reconversion to grassland should represent the complete environmental gradient of the Pampean region, instead of prioritizing a single site with high species richness. © 2018 Ecological Society of Australia 2018 https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos |
| institution |
Universidad de Buenos Aires |
| institution_str |
I-28 |
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R-134 |
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Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) |
| topic |
diversity patterns energy environmental heterogeneity nestedness turnover ant conservation status environmental factor environmental gradient grassland longitudinal gradient nestedness pitfall trap species diversity species richness Argentina Pampas Formicidae Hymenoptera |
| spellingShingle |
diversity patterns energy environmental heterogeneity nestedness turnover ant conservation status environmental factor environmental gradient grassland longitudinal gradient nestedness pitfall trap species diversity species richness Argentina Pampas Formicidae Hymenoptera Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland |
| topic_facet |
diversity patterns energy environmental heterogeneity nestedness turnover ant conservation status environmental factor environmental gradient grassland longitudinal gradient nestedness pitfall trap species diversity species richness Argentina Pampas Formicidae Hymenoptera |
| description |
Understanding the underlying mechanisms causing diversity patterns is a fundamental objective in ecology and science-based conservation biology. Energy and environmental-heterogeneity hypotheses have been suggested to explain spatial changes in ant diversity. However, the relative roles of each one in determining alpha and beta diversity patterns remain elusive. We investigated the main factors driving spatial changes in ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) species richness and composition (including turnover and nestedness components) along a 500 km longitudinal gradient in the Pampean region of Argentina. Ants were sampled using pitfall traps in 12 sample sites during the summer. We performed a model selection approach to analyse responses of ant richness and composition dissimilarity to environmental factors. Then, we computed a dissimilarity partitioning of the contributions of spatial turnover and nestedness to total composition dissimilarity. Temporal habitat heterogeneity and temperature were the primary factors explaining spatial patterns of epigean ant species richness across the Pampas. The distance decay in species composition similarity was best accounted by temperature dissimilarity, and turnover had the greatest contribution to the observed beta diversity pattern. Our findings suggest that both energy and environmental-heterogeneity-related variables are key factors shaping richness patterns of ants and niche-based processes instead of neutral processes appear to be regulating species composition of ant assemblages. The major contribution of turnover to the beta diversity pattern indicated that lands for potential reconversion to grassland should represent the complete environmental gradient of the Pampean region, instead of prioritizing a single site with high species richness. © 2018 Ecological Society of Australia |
| title |
Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland |
| title_short |
Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland |
| title_full |
Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland |
| title_fullStr |
Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the Argentine Pampas grassland |
| title_sort |
environmental drivers of ant species richness and composition across the argentine pampas grassland |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_14429985_v43_n4_p424_Ramos |
| _version_ |
1840323422722195456 |