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Vol. 53, 2014
Diversity decrease of ant (Formicidae, Hymenoptera) after a
forest disturbance: different responses among functional guilds
Tae-Sung
Kwon1, Cheol Min Lee2* and Joo Han Sung2
1Division
of Forest Insect Pests and Diseases, Korea Forest Research Institute,
57 Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-712, Republic of Korea
2Division of Forest Ecology, Korea Forest Research
Institute, 57 Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-712, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Background: Disturbance is one of
the main causes for determining diversity of natural communities. A
3-year (2003 to 2005) monitoring of ant communities at a Long-Term
Ecological Research (LTER) site in South Korea revealed a drop of ant
diversity due to a forest disturbance which was evidenced by decrease
of leaf area index (LAI) associated with the dropping of tree branches.
In order to determine the process of the decrease in diversity, we
compared the annual change of functional ant guilds, which are composed
of forest ground foragers (FGF), forest vegetation foragers (FVF), soil
and litter dwellers (SLD), and open-land foragers (OF).
Results: Four functional guilds of ants responded
differently to the forest disturbance; FGF and SLD decreased, but OF
and FVF increased. Species richness decreased, due to the decrease in
SLD, and species evenness decreased mainly due to a sudden increase in
an OF species, Formica japonica. Based on these findings,
a mechanism is proposed for the decrease in ant diversity after the
forest disturbance.
Conclusions: Ant communities
responded significantly to even a slight forest disturbance of branch
dropping with decrease in diversity and change in functional guild
structures.
Key words: Ant; Richness; Diversity;
Abundance; Disturbance; Community; Functional guild.
*Correspondence: E-mail: leecheolmin77@gmail.com
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