Temporal Turnover of Species Maintains Ant Diversity but Transforms Species Assemblage Recovering from Fire Disturbance

Authors

  • Diego Vinícius Anjos Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto
  • Renata Bernardes Faria Campos Universidade Ferderal de Ouro Preto; Universidade do Vale do Rio Doce
  • Servio Pontes Ribeiro Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v62i3.726

Keywords:

Natural sucession, burn, rupestrian complex vegetation, species substitution

Abstract

The rupestrian complex is a montane transitional vegetation type between the Brazilian Savanna (‘Cerrado’) and the Atlantic Forest, frequently threatened by human activities. In this study, we evaluated the recovery to fire disturbance of ant fauna in an environment evolved under fire regime. We confirmed that the ant diversity recovers quickly after the fire. However, our results show that ant assemblage in burned areas presented greater ant’s foraging activity, here detected as higher abundance. The ant composition changed over time, being that species turnover lead to a strikingly different species composition comparing burned to unburned areas after 16 months of recovering. In fact, both areas changed their ant composition through species turnover, but we believe that the mechanisms that act in species turnover are different in each area. Along time, in burned areas the fauna maintained a constant species diversity but dramatically changed species assemblage due to appearance of several species not found in the unburned area.

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Author Biographies

Diego Vinícius Anjos, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

Laboratório de Ecologia Evolutiva de Insetos de Dossel e Sucessão Natural, Departamento de Biodiversidade, Evolução e Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

Renata Bernardes Faria Campos, Universidade Ferderal de Ouro Preto; Universidade do Vale do Rio Doce

Laboratório de Ecologia Evolutiva de Insetos de Dossel e Sucessão Natural, Departamento de Biodiversidade, Evolução e Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto; Programa de Pós Graduação Strictu Sensu em Gestão Integrada do Território

 

Servio Pontes Ribeiro, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

Laboratório de Ecologia Evolutiva de Insetos de Dossel e Sucessão Natural, Departamento de Biodiversidade, Evolução e Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto

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Published

2015-09-30

How to Cite

Anjos, D. V., Campos, R. B. F., & Ribeiro, S. P. (2015). Temporal Turnover of Species Maintains Ant Diversity but Transforms Species Assemblage Recovering from Fire Disturbance. Sociobiology, 62(3), 389–395. https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v62i3.726

Issue

Vol. 62 No. 3 (2015)

Section

Research Article - Ants

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