Do Dominant Ants Affect Secondary Productivity, Behavior and Diversity in a Guild of Woodland Ants?

Lessard, Jean-Philippe; Stuble, Katherine; Sanders, Nathan

ARACT: The degree to which competition by dominant species shaps ecological comities regely unrolved de. In ant unimodaminance–richnessationships are cggest that dominspecies, when vebundant, competily exclude non-dominant species. However, few sttigated the underlying mechanismffect coexistence and the mainte richness. In this study, we firrelationship between the richnest ant species and the abundance t species, Formica subsericea, aassemblages in the eastern US. T or not significant depending onn influential observation. Moreover, we found only limited evidees. For example, at the colony-level, the size and productivity dominant ant nests than when they were away and, in fact, was aspecies was lower at food sources near than far from dominant F. was not negatively affected. However, foraging activity of the n-dominant species avoid interactions with competitively superior community structure arise requires linking processes from colonanisms promoting coexistence.Bemunmains a laresbates,l do relommon and suant ry ativeudies have invess by which dominant ants might anance of speciesst examined the s of non-dominanof a dominant anmong forest ant his relationship was hump-shaped the inclusion or exclusion of ance that F. subsericea negatively affects the productivity or behavior of non-dominant ant speciof colonies of non-dominant ant species were not different when they were in close proximity to sociated with increased productivity in one species. Additionally, the number of foraging workers of only one non-dominant ant ssubsericea nests, while the number of foragers of other species on-dominant ant species was greater at night when F. subsericea was inactive, suggesting a potential mechanism by which some non species. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of how patterns ofies to communities. Our study suggests the negative effects of dominant ant species on non-dominant species may be oset by mechST