| Preference for mammalian urine is higher in the canopy than on the ground in a tropical rainforest ant community in Yunnan, China | |
| Blanchard, Benjamin D.; Dai, Qian2,3; Duan, Mengge4; Nie, Yu5; Njoroge, Denis M.; Nakamura, Akihiro | |
| 2024 | |
| Source Publication | MYRMECOLOGICAL NEWS
 |
| ISSN | 1994-4136 |
| Volume | 34Issue:_Pages:57_69 |
| Abstract | Ants are among the most abundant groups of arthropods, and approximately half of all ant species are associated with forest canopies. The forest canopy environment is distinct from the understory and forest floor, and vertical stratification in environmental conditions shapes species assembly and organismal traits and behaviors across taxa in forest communities. Canopy ants are faced with a more nitrogen -limited environment compared with ground ants because of their reliance on nitrogen -poor plant and insect exudates. Despite prior work suggesting that some ant species consume mammalian urine and use symbiotic bacteria to extract nitrogen, we have little knowledge about the consumption of urine in canopy ants or the relative preference for urine between ground and canopy ants. We conducted an observational field experiment in a lowland tropical rainforest in southern China to test for vertical stratification in ant preference for sugar and urine, setting ground and canopy baited pitfall traps with the use of a canopy crane. We found distinct vertical stratification in the use of urine, with higher richness and abundance in sugar baits on the ground, and a higher abundance in urine baits in the canopy. Furthermore, the composition of captured ants differentiated according to both vertical stratum and bait type. This distinct vertical stratification of niche preference may represent an important case of niche partitioning that contributes to high ant species diversity in tropical rainforests as well as high species turnover between ground and canopy strata. The preference of canopy ants for mammalian urine also highlights the importance of interspecific interactions across highly unrelated animal taxa and emphasizes the need for a holistic understanding of biological networks to effectively conserve threatened tropical forest communities. |
| Keyword | Carbohydrate diet Formicidae Hymenoptera nitrogen nutrient preference tropical forest vertical stratification |
| Subject Area | Entomology |
| DOI | 10.25849/myrmecol.news_034:057 |
| Indexed By | SCI |
| Language | 英语 |
| WOS ID | WOS:001248474000004 |
| Citation statistics | |
| Document Type | 期刊论文 |
| Identifier | https://ir.xtbg.ac.cn/handle/353005/14299 |
| Collection | 2012年后新成立研究组 |
| Affiliation | 1.Chinese Acad Sci, Xishuangbanna Trop Bot Garden, CAS Key Lab Trop Forest Ecol, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, Peoples R China 2.Blanchard, Benjamin D.; Dai, Qian; Duan, Mengge; Nie, Yu; Njoroge, Denis M.] Chinese Acad Sci, Program Field Studies Trop Asia, Xishuangbanna Trop Bot Garden, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, Peoples R China 3.Chinese Acad Sci, Ctr Plant Ecol Core Bot Gardens, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, Peoples R China 4.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 101408, Peoples R China 5.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Zool, CAS Key Lab Anim Ecol & Conservat Biol, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 6.Hainan Univ, Coll Ecol & Environm, Haikou 570228, Peoples R China 7.Njoroge, Denis M.] Chinese Acad Sci, CAS Key Lab Aquat Bot & Watershed Ecol, Wuhan Bot Garden, Wuhan 430074, Peoples R China |
| Recommended Citation GB/T 7714 | Blanchard, Benjamin D.,Dai, Qian,Duan, Mengge,et al. Preference for mammalian urine is higher in the canopy than on the ground in a tropical rainforest ant community in Yunnan, China[J]. MYRMECOLOGICAL NEWS,2024,34(_):57_69. |
| APA | Blanchard, Benjamin D.,Dai, Qian,Duan, Mengge,Nie, Yu,Njoroge, Denis M.,&Nakamura, Akihiro.(2024).Preference for mammalian urine is higher in the canopy than on the ground in a tropical rainforest ant community in Yunnan, China.MYRMECOLOGICAL NEWS,34(_),57_69. |
| MLA | Blanchard, Benjamin D.,et al."Preference for mammalian urine is higher in the canopy than on the ground in a tropical rainforest ant community in Yunnan, China".MYRMECOLOGICAL NEWS 34._(2024):57_69. |
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| Preference for mamma（2669KB） | 期刊论文 | 出版稿 | 开放获取 | CC BY-NC-SA | View Download | |
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