Habitats shape taxonomic and functional composition of Neotropical ant assemblages

• Published in: Oecologia Vol. 189; no. 2; pp. 501 - 513
• Main Authors: Fichaux, Mélanie, Béchade, Benoît, Donald, Julian, Weyna, Arthur, Delabie, Jacques Hubert Charles, Murienne, Jérôme, Baraloto, Christopher, Orivel, Jérôme
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Science + Business Media 01.02.2019; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Analysis; Ants; Assembly; Biodiversity and Ecology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Communities; Community ecology; COMMUNITY ECOLOGY - ORIGINAL RESEARCH; Competition; competitive exclusion; Composition; Ecology; Environmental Sciences; Filtration; forest habitats; Forests; Formicidae; French Guiana; Habitat selection; Habitats; Hydrology/Water Resources; Interactions; Leaf litter; Leaves; Life Sciences; Litter; Litters (births); multivariate analysis; Plant Sciences; Plateaus; Swamps; Taxonomy; traps; Tropical climate; Tropical forests; Understory; French Guiana; Formicidae; Rainforest; Habitat filtering; Traits; Functional diversity; functional diversity; rainforest; traits; habitat filtering
• ISSN: 0029-8549; 1432-1939; 1432-1939
• DOI: 10.1007/s00442-019-04341-z

Determining assembly rules of co-occurring species persists as a fundamental goal in community ecology. At local scales, the relative importance of environmental filtering vs. competitive exclusion remains a subject of debate. In this study, we assessed the relative importance of habitat filtering and competition in structuring understory ant communities in tropical forests of French Guiana. Leaf-litter ants were collected using pitfall and Winkler traps across swamp, slope and plateau forests near Saül, French Guiana. We used a combination of univariate and multivariate analyses to evaluate trait response of ants to habitat characteristics. Null model analyses were used to investigate the effects of habitat filtering and competitive interactions on community assembly at the scale of assemblages and sampling points, respectively. Swamp forests presented a much lower taxonomic and functional richness compared to slope and plateau forests. Furthermore, marked differences in taxonomic and functional composition were observed between swamp forests and slope or plateau forests. We found weak evidence for competitive exclusion based on null models. Nevertheless, the contrasting trait composition observed between habitats revealed differences in the ecological attributes of the species in the different forest habitats. Our analyses suggest that competitive interactions may not play an important role in structuring leaf-litter ant assemblages locally. Rather, habitats are responsible for driving both taxonomic and functional composition of ant communities.