Taxonomic and functional ecology of montane ants

dc.contributor.authorBishop, Tom R.
dc.date.accessioned2017-08-15T10:33:00Z
dc.date.available2017-08-15T10:33:00Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.description.abstractWhy is biological diversity distributed in the way that it is? This question has been central to ecology and biogeography for centuries and is of great importance for pure and applied reasons. I use a functional trait view of ecology to complement standard sampling protocols to better understand the distribution and structure of ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) diversity across mountains. I use a longterm dataset of ant diversity and abundance, combined with a recently collected morphological trait dataset to examine how the alpha and beta diversity of ants responds to changes in temperature along an extensive elevational gradient in southern Africa. In addition, I link morphological thermoregulatory traits to each other and to the environment with a new database of ant elevational abundances from across the globe. Finally, I analyse how physiological thermal tolerances vary and constrain foraging patterns in montane ants. I find that temperature is a strong driver of both alpha and beta diversity patterns. In addition, morphological traits such as colour and body size are found to have a significant relationship to ambient temperatures. This relationship also implies that the relative abundances of different ant species change depending on their thermoregulatory traits (colour and body size) and the surrounding thermal environment. Furthermore, the critical thermal minimum (CTmin) of the ant species investigated and the lowest environmental temperatures are found to be key in constraining foraging activity patterns. The data presented here strengthen and link existing ideas about how thermoregulation can influence ecological communities and also suggests important ways in which diversity patterns may change in the future.en_ZA
dc.description.departmentZoology and Entomologyen_ZA
dc.description.librarianam2017en_ZA
dc.description.urihttp://escholarship.org/uc/fben_ZA
dc.identifier.citationBishop, T.R. 2017, 'Taxonomic and functional ecology of montane ants', Frontiers of Biogeography, vol. 9, no. 1, art. no. e32695, pp. 1-8.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1948-6596 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.21425/F59132695
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/61654
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherInternational Biogeography Societyen_ZA
dc.rights© the authors, CC-BY licenseen_ZA
dc.subjectAntsen_ZA
dc.subjectFunctional diversityen_ZA
dc.subjectMacroecologyen_ZA
dc.subjectMountainsen_ZA
dc.subjectThermal physiologyen_ZA
dc.subjectThermoregulationen_ZA
dc.titleTaxonomic and functional ecology of montane antsen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA

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