Artigo

Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia

Termites play important roles in tropical ecosystem functioning, and their evolutionary success has been linked to their defense mechanisms. However, microhabitat overlap with potential aggressors may constrain their distribution and thus, their environmental impacts on an ecological timescale. We i...

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Autor principal: Lima Pequeno, Pedro A C
Outros Autores: Pantoja, Pauline Oliveira
Grau: Artigo
Idioma: English
Publicado em: Sociobiology 2020
Assuntos:
Azteca
Formicidae
Hexapoda
Isoptera
Neocapritermes
Acesso em linha: https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/16123
id oai:repositorio:1-16123
recordtype dspace
spelling oai:repositorio:1-16123 Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia Lima Pequeno, Pedro A C Pantoja, Pauline Oliveira Azteca Formicidae Hexapoda Isoptera Neocapritermes Termites play important roles in tropical ecosystem functioning, and their evolutionary success has been linked to their defense mechanisms. However, microhabitat overlap with potential aggressors may constrain their distribution and thus, their environmental impacts on an ecological timescale. We investigated a possible negative effect of abundant generalist ants (Azteca sp.) on the termite Neocapritermes braziliensis. Both taxa frequently build their nests attached to trees. We determined the densities of their active nests in 10 plots (250 × 10 m) systematically distributed over 5 km2 in central Amazonia, Brazil, and recorded their co-occurrence in individual trees. Using generalized nonlinear modeling in a Bayesian framework, we found good support for a negative effect of Azteca's nest density on N. braziliensis. This effect conformed to a power law, and accounted for more than half of the variation in the termite s nest density (r2 = 0.56). Additionally, of all counted N. braziliensis mounds, only 1.08 percent was attached to trees also hosting Azteca. Such patterns may have arisen due to N. braziliensis'inability to establish new nests within Azteca territories, or predation by ants on established colonies of the termite. We suggest that even non-strictly termitophagous ant species may have important impacts on termite populations and, consequently, on their roles in nutrient cycling and ecosystem engineering. 2020-05-24T21:49:10Z 2020-05-24T21:49:10Z 2012 Artigo https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/16123 en Volume 59, Número 3, Pags. 893-902 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Brazil http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/br/ application/pdf Sociobiology
institution Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia - Repositório Institucional
collection INPA-RI
language English
topic Azteca
Formicidae
Hexapoda
Isoptera
Neocapritermes
spellingShingle Azteca
Formicidae
Hexapoda
Isoptera
Neocapritermes
Lima Pequeno, Pedro A C
Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
topic_facet Azteca
Formicidae
Hexapoda
Isoptera
Neocapritermes
description Termites play important roles in tropical ecosystem functioning, and their evolutionary success has been linked to their defense mechanisms. However, microhabitat overlap with potential aggressors may constrain their distribution and thus, their environmental impacts on an ecological timescale. We investigated a possible negative effect of abundant generalist ants (Azteca sp.) on the termite Neocapritermes braziliensis. Both taxa frequently build their nests attached to trees. We determined the densities of their active nests in 10 plots (250 × 10 m) systematically distributed over 5 km2 in central Amazonia, Brazil, and recorded their co-occurrence in individual trees. Using generalized nonlinear modeling in a Bayesian framework, we found good support for a negative effect of Azteca's nest density on N. braziliensis. This effect conformed to a power law, and accounted for more than half of the variation in the termite s nest density (r2 = 0.56). Additionally, of all counted N. braziliensis mounds, only 1.08 percent was attached to trees also hosting Azteca. Such patterns may have arisen due to N. braziliensis'inability to establish new nests within Azteca territories, or predation by ants on established colonies of the termite. We suggest that even non-strictly termitophagous ant species may have important impacts on termite populations and, consequently, on their roles in nutrient cycling and ecosystem engineering.
format Artigo
author Lima Pequeno, Pedro A C
author2 Pantoja, Pauline Oliveira
author2Str Pantoja, Pauline Oliveira
title Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
title_short Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
title_full Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
title_fullStr Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
title_full_unstemmed Negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
title_sort negative effects of azteca ants on the distribution of the termite neocapritermes braziliensis in central amazonia
publisher Sociobiology
publishDate 2020
url https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/16123
_version_ 1787141922385559552
score 11.755432

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