Resource distribution and soil moisture content can regulate bait control in an ant assemblage in Central Amazonian forest

Abstract

Resources influence population growth, interspecific interactions, territoriality and, in combination with moisture content, affect terrestrial arthropod distribution and abundance. Ants are usually described as interactive and compete in transitive hierarchies, where the dominants behaviourally exclude subordinate species from food resources. In this study, we evaluated the effects of (i) dominant ants, soil moisture and an artificial resource gradient on the number of ant species attracted to baits; and (ii) how soil moisture and an artificial resource gradient change the number of controlled baits in a Central Amazonian rain forest. We sampled 30 100-m-long transects, located at least 200 m apart. The transects were established with six different bait densities varying between six and 41 baits and the soil moisture content was measured at 10 points for each transect. Six ant species were considered dominant, and had negative correlations with the number of species at baits (r2 = 0.186; F1,28 = 6.419; P = 0.017). However, almost half of the transects showed low abundance of dominant species (<30%), and relatively high number of species (mean of 20.1 ± 8.75). Resource availability and soil moisture had negative and positive correlations, with number of controlled baits. These results suggest that, even though the dominance is relatively poorly developed on the floor of this tropical forest, both resource availability and soil moisture affect resource control, and thus, the number of species that use baits. © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 Ecological Society of Australia.