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20 February 2020 Daily Dynamics of an Ant Community in a Mountaintop Ecosystem
Eloá Gonçalves Calazans, Fernanda Vieira da Costa, Maykon Passos Cristiano, Danon Clemes Cardoso
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Abstract

Abiotic conditions have a great influence on the structure of biological communities, especially considering ectothermic organisms, such as ants. In this study, we tested whether the daily temporal dynamics of an ant community in a tropical mountainous ecosystem is driven by daily fluctuations of abiotic factors, such as temperature and humidity. We also investigated whether the strong oscillation in daily temperature leads to high heterogeneity in ant species thermal responses. We have found that air and soil temperatures positively influenced the richness and frequency of foraging ants, while air humidity caused the opposite effect. Ant activity followed daily temperature fluctuations, which resulted in subtle differences in foraging patterns featured by heat-tolerant and heat-intolerant species. Moreover, the studied ant community exhibited broad and highly overlapped thermal responses, suggesting a likely resilience under temperature oscillations. Lastly, identifying how species traits are linked to oscillations in abiotic conditions is a necessary step to predict the effects of future climatic changes on biological community dynamics and ecosystem functioning.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Eloá Gonçalves Calazans, Fernanda Vieira da Costa, Maykon Passos Cristiano, and Danon Clemes Cardoso "Daily Dynamics of an Ant Community in a Mountaintop Ecosystem," Environmental Entomology 49(2), 383-390, (20 February 2020). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvaa011
Received: 12 November 2019; Accepted: 22 January 2020; Published: 20 February 2020
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KEYWORDS
campo rupestre
climate change
temperature
thermal niches
thermal responses
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