University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Ants as indicators for vertebrate fauna at a local scale: an assessment of cross-taxa surrogacy in a disturbed matrix

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 07:27 authored by Bennett, JM, Kutt, AS, Christopher JohnsonChristopher Johnson, Robson, SKA
We examined the spatial fidelity in the pattern in species richness, abundance and composition of ants, birds, mammals and reptiles in a Eucalyptus vegetation type in Australian tropical savanna woodland. We sampled 32 sites representing intact (uncleared) vegetation, and three treatments of different clearing age (2, 12 and 18 years). We investigated whether each fauna taxon could act a surrogate for pattern in the other, and whether they responded in parallel to time since clearing. Reptiles and mammals were combined into a single group. The correlation between taxa was low for abundance (the best being between rept/mamm and ant abundance R = 0.34) and moderate for species richness (varied from 0.36 to 0.44). Mantel tests identified a moderately strong relationship between bird and rept/mamm composition (R = 0.48). Recent clearing (2–12 years) depleted both abundance and species richness of the vertebrate fauna, whereas ant abun- dance spiked. Ant species richness was consistent over time since clearing. ANOSIM revealed that clearing age was a strong a priori predictor of birds and rept/mamm com- position (Global R = 0.48, 0.65, respectively), whereas it was not for ants (Global R = 0.20). Pair-wise comparisons suggested that for birds, rept/mamm, there was con- sistent changes in composition from intact woodlands to different aged clearing. This was not the case for ants; most distinct variation in composition occurred between treatments of increasing in clearing age (2–18 years R = 0.69, 12–18 years R = 0.65). The results of this study do not support the use of ants as a surrogate of vertebrates at a local scale in a cleared and intact vegetation mosaic. We acknowledge that identification of universal surrogates and indicators are difficult to find, but funding and political expediency that demand rapid solutions to conservation planning necessitate continued investigation of the merits of using surrogate species.

History

Publication title

Biodiversity and Conservation

Volume

18

Issue

13

Pagination

3407-3419

ISSN

0960-3115

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publ

Place of publication

Van Godewijckstraat 30, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 33

Rights statement

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.com

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Terrestrial biodiversity

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC