Effects of environmental variation and livestock grazing on ant community structure in temperate eucalypt woodlands

被引:23
作者
Barton, Philip S. [1 ]
Sato, Chloe F. [1 ]
Kay, Geoffrey M. [1 ]
Florance, Daniel [1 ]
Lindenmayer, David B. [1 ]
机构
[1] Australian Natl Univ, Fenner Sch Environm & Soc, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
基金
澳大利亚研究理事会;
关键词
Agriculture; biodiversity conservation; environmental stewardship; formicidae; grazing; insect; invertebrate; modified landscape; monitoring; restoration; FUNCTIONAL-GROUPS; BIOINDICATORS; BIODIVERSITY; SOIL; DISTURBANCE; ECOSYSTEMS; AUSTRALIA; INVERTEBRATES; ORDINATION; EXCLUSION;
D O I
10.1111/icad.12151
中图分类号
X176 [生物多样性保护];
学科分类号
090705 ;
摘要
1. Grazing by livestock is a major ecological disturbance, with potential effects on vegetation, soil, and insect fauna. Ants are a diverse and functionally important insect group with many associations with the ground layer, yet recent global syntheses question the importance of grazing effects on ant communities relative to vegetation or soil. 2. We examined the effects of vegetation, soil and grazing on the whole ant community, ant functional groups, and abundant species in temperate eucalypt woodlands, southeastern Australia. 3. We found limited influence of grazing on our vegetation and soil measures, except for a positive association between grazing and exotic perennial grass cover. We also found that exotic grass cover had a negative effect on overall ant abundance and richness, but not functional groups or individual species. Soil C:N ratio had a positive effect on the subdominant Camponotini, and leaf litter cover had a positive effect on the abundance of cryptic species. Partial Mantel tests revealed an effect of both environmental and grazing measures on ant assemblage composition, but constrained ordination showed that leaf litter cover, grass biomass, and native and exotic perennial grass cover had stronger correlations with ant community structure than grazing. 4. Our study shows that both environmental variation and grazing play a role in driving ant community structure, but that key environmental variables such as grass biomass and leaf litter cover are particularly important in temperate eucalypt woodlands. Monitoring of ant communities to measure the benefits of changed grazing regimes for biodiversity should consider contemporary grazing pressure as well as the underlying effects of variation in plants and soils.
引用
收藏
页码:124 / 134
页数:11
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