Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Catherine L. Parr, Tom R. Bishop
Summary: Ants are one of the most dominant terrestrial organisms globally and their response to climate change is a complex issue. Ant populations and communities may be affected by temperature changes, but species in temperate regions and those able to buffer temperature may not be impacted or could even benefit. The response of ants to other abiotic drivers associated with climate change is largely unknown, as is the impact of altered ant populations and communities on wider ecological networks. The social behavior of ants may allow them to adapt to or tolerate climate change in ways that solitary organisms cannot.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Physiology
S. A. Morley, J. W. F. Chu, L. S. Peck, A. E. Bates
Summary: Thermal tolerance windows are crucial for measuring animals' resilience to climate change. In the Antarctic marine environment, some species lack escape responses to temperature, while others have an escape response temperature close to acute lethal limits. This suggests that adaptation may be the primary mechanism for their persistence in a warmer Southern Ocean.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Karl A. Roeder, Jelena Bujan, Kirsten M. Beurs, Michael D. Weiser, Michael Kaspari
Summary: Predicted global temperature increases have harmful effects on insect taxa, with some ant genera increasing their incidence as temperatures rise. Genera with higher critical thermal limits are more likely to spread to more survey sites after 20 years of temperature increase.
Review
Biology
Geraldo Nascimento, Talita Camara, Xavier Arnan
Summary: This article reviews research on the physiological thermal limits of ants, summarizes the factors influencing ant thermal limits, and analyzes the impact of thermal limits on ant distribution and ecological performance. The importance of protecting ant diversity and ant-mediated ecosystem services in the future is emphasized.
BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Gloria Massamba-N'Siala, G. Reygondeau, R. Simonini, W. W. L. Cheung, D. Prevedelli, P. Calosi
Summary: Rare and uncommon species were found to have lower upper thermal tolerance compared to common species, while niche breadth and acclimation capacity were comparable among groups. Simulation predictions indicated an overall increase in habitat suitability index for all species and identified potential hotspots of habitat suitability index decline for uncommon and rare species along the warm boundaries of their potential distribution, although they failed to predict the higher sensitivity of these species resulting in greater vulnerability to ocean warming.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Asim Renyard, Regine Gries, Jan Lee, Jaime M. Chalissery, Sebastian Damin, Robert Britton, Gerhard Gries
Summary: Ants selectively consume sustained carbohydrate resources, such as aphid honeydew, based on factors like sugar type, concentration, and volume. They prefer sugar solutions with specific sugars and higher sugar content. While sugar type and concentration are the ultimate reasons for foraging behavior, strong recruitment of nest-mates to superior sources is likely the major immediate cause.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Henry S. Pollock, Jeffrey D. Brawn, Zachary A. Cheviron
Summary: This study compared heat tolerance in 81 bird species and found that while temperate species had higher heat tolerance limits and upper critical temperatures on average than tropical species, these differences did not impact vulnerability to climate warming. The results suggest that tropical birds may not be systematically more susceptible to climate warming than temperate birds, and certain avian clades may be more resilient to warming irrespective of local climate. However, further replication from other habitats and localities is needed to evaluate the generality of these findings.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Asim Renyard, Regine Gries, Stephanie L. Cooper, Claire E. Gooding, Jenelle C. Breen, Santosh Kumar Alamsetti, Ashley Munoz, Gerhard Gries
Summary: Ant colonies have diverse nutritional needs, but forager ants face limitations in meeting these needs due to their limited mobility. A study on the Western carpenter ant reveals that worker ants can sense and orient toward both carbohydrate and protein food sources. They also possess good olfactory acuity and can discern between different food odor profiles.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Matthew J. J. Troia
Summary: Integrating thermal physiology with environmental temperature is crucial to understanding the distribution and vulnerability of species to climate change. Traditional estimates of warming tolerance, based on maximum thermal tolerance and maximum habitat temperature, tend to overestimate the tolerance and underestimate the vulnerability of organisms to climate change.
Article
Ecology
Chung-Te Cheng, Ming-Feng Chuang, Takashi Haramura, Chaun-Bin Cheng, Ye Inn Kim, Amael Borzee, Chi-Shiun Wu, Yi-Huey Chen, Yikweon Jang, Nicholas C. Wu, Yeong-Choy Kam
Summary: Global warming and deforestation are pushing species closer to their physiological limit, especially for species with habitat-restricted life stages. The study examined the warming tolerance of larvae from 29 anuran species across a latitudinal gradient to test how latitude and habitat type affected vulnerability to climate change. The results showed that deforestation will exacerbate the effects of climate warming on warming tolerance, making species with range-restricted life stages more vulnerable to anthropogenic change.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Cody A. Freas, Antoine Wystrach, Sebastian Schwarz, Marcia L. Spetch
Summary: Ants establish foraging routes through learning views of the visual panorama. They rapidly learn and perceive aversive views, which trigger changes in behavior. A logarithmic relationship between captivity duration and hesitations suggests how aversive view learning could be executed within the mushroom bodies circuitry.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Review
Ecology
Zhanna Reznikova
Summary: This paper analyzes individual differences and personalities in ants, providing new insights in various insect species and exploring how individual roles within ant colonies depend on foraging styles. Although it is widely accepted that colony personalities in ants emerge from worker personalities, there is limited investigation into individual personalities. The leader-scouting system appears to be the only known system based on consistent individual differences.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jelena Bujan, Sebastien Ollier, Irene Villalta, Severine Devers, Xim Cerda, Fernando Amor, Abdallah Dahbi, Cleo Bertelsmeier, Raphael Boulay
Summary: This study tested the predictive ability of important factors determining the fundamental niche (physiology, morphology, and evolutionary history) on the realized niche, and found no linkage between them. This has important implications for predicting species responses to climate change using the realized niche.
DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
(2022)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Matthew Sasaki, Hans G. Dam
Summary: Research shows that copepod thermal tolerance increases with maximum annual temperature, while the effects of phenotypic plasticity on thermal tolerance are negatively related to the magnitude of thermal tolerance. However, our ability to fully describe these patterns is limited by a lack of spatial, temporal and phylogenetic coverage in copepod thermal tolerance data.
JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Biology
Haruna Fujioka, Manon Marchand, Adria C. C. LeBoeuf
Summary: Ants collect liquid more efficiently by mandibular grabbing rather than drinking. When the viscosity of the liquid is high, ants change their liquid-collection method to increase the amount of sugar carried back to the nest.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Letter
Ecology
Tom R. Bishop, Hannah M. Griffiths, Louise A. Ashton, Paul Eggleton, Joel S. Woon, Catherine L. Parr
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Michael J. W. Boyle, Tom R. Bishop, Sarah H. Luke, Michiel van Breugel, Theodore A. Evans, Marion Pfeifer, Tom M. Fayle, Stephen R. Hardwick, Rachel Isolde Lane-Shaw, Kalsum M. Yusah, Imogen C. R. Ashford, Oliver S. Ashford, Emma Garnett, Edgar C. Turner, Clare L. Wilkinson, Arthur Y. C. Chung, Robert M. Ewers
Summary: Logging and habitat conversion in tropical forest landscapes create hotter microclimates, affecting the abundance and functional activity of ant genera. The interaction between thermal tolerance and environmental temperature determines changes in ant communities along forest disturbance gradients. These findings highlight the importance of physiological traits in shaping disturbance-induced microclimate effects on invertebrates in tropical landscapes.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Entomology
A. B. Davies, C. L. Parr, P. Eggleton
Summary: Termites play a crucial role in ecosystems, but sampling methods vary across habitats and regions. Different techniques are recommended for different biomes and biogeographic regions, improving the efficiency and accuracy of termite studies.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hannah M. Griffiths, Paul Eggleton, Nicole Hemming-Schroeder, Tom Swinfield, Joel S. Woon, Steven D. Allison, David A. Coomes, Louise A. Ashton, Catherine L. Parr
Summary: Tree mortality rates are increasing in tropical rainforests due to global environmental change, accelerating the rate of wood decay, particularly in canopy gaps where termites play a major role. Through experiments and modeling, it was found that accelerated decomposition in canopy gaps leads to an increase in regional wood decay rate, which is not currently considered in carbon budgets.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Ananza M. Rabello, Catherine L. Parr, Antonio C. M. Queiroz, Danielle L. Braga, Graziele S. Santiago, Carla R. Ribas
Summary: Land-use change affects ant species and functional groups differently based on frequency of occurrence, habitat specificity, and fidelity, with common ant species being more sensitive to habitat transformation. Different vegetation types have distinct indicator species and functional groups in native habitats compared to converted habitats. Functional groups in converted habitats show lack of specificity and fidelity in any vegetation type.
BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2021)
Editorial Material
Ecology
Petr Klimes, Tom R. Bishop, Tom M. Fayle, Shuang Xing
Summary: The study reanalyzes the changes in a cloud forest ant assemblage in response to climate change after a decade, attributing the differences to variations in sampling methods and effort between sampling periods. It emphasizes the importance of standardized methodology to distinguish true climate change effects from sampling bias when evaluating communities.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Fernando A. O. Silveira, Carlos A. Ordonez-Parra, Livia C. Moura, Isabel B. Schmidt, Alan N. Andersen, William Bond, Elise Buisson, Giselda Durigan, Alessandra Fidelis, Rafael S. Oliveira, Catherine Parr, Lucy Rowland, Joseph W. Veldman, R. Toby Pennington
Summary: The study identified disparities in attention, action, and knowledge among different biomes in tropical restoration science, practice, and policy, with forests receiving more focus than open biomes. The findings suggest a need to increase awareness and recognition of the value of open biomes for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, climate change mitigation, and human livelihoods, in order to effectively achieve the goals of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Catherine L. Parr, Tom R. Bishop
Summary: Ants are one of the most dominant terrestrial organisms globally and their response to climate change is a complex issue. Ant populations and communities may be affected by temperature changes, but species in temperate regions and those able to buffer temperature may not be impacted or could even benefit. The response of ants to other abiotic drivers associated with climate change is largely unknown, as is the impact of altered ant populations and communities on wider ecological networks. The social behavior of ants may allow them to adapt to or tolerate climate change in ways that solitary organisms cannot.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Editorial Material
Ecology
Heloise Gibb, Tom R. Bishop, Lily Leahy, Catherine L. Parr, Jean-Philippe Lessard, Nathan J. Sanders, Jonathan Z. Shik, Javier Ibarra-Isassi, Ajay Narendra, Robert R. Dunn, Ian J. Wright
Summary: This study explores the similarities and differences in ecological strategies between plants and ants, with a focus on the different modules of eusocial organisms.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Alannah Filer, Edward A. Meyer, Berndt J. van Rensburg
Summary: Coastal wallum wetlands, with their unique hydrology and water chemistry, are susceptible to habitat degradation, posing a threat to the vulnerable wallum sedgefrog. Human activities allow the habitat generalist eastern sedgefrog to colonise and displace the wallum sedgefrog, particularly in areas of sympatry. The study highlights the importance of protected areas in conserving the wallum sedgefrog and identifies areas where competition with the eastern sedgefrog presents a particular threat.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jacob H. H. Idec, Tom R. R. Bishop, Brian L. L. Fisher
Summary: Organisms use color for various biological functions, but studying color variation at global scales presents challenges in data collection. We used a computer vision algorithm to analyze color data from over 44,000 ant specimens, revealing high intraspecific variation and questioning previous ecogeographic hypotheses. This computational approach may revolutionize data collection in functional biogeography.
Article
Ecology
Chaim J. J. Lasmar, Tom R. R. Bishop, Catherine L. L. Parr, Antonio C. M. Queiroz, Icaro Wilker, Rodrigo M. M. Feitosa, Fernando A. A. Schmidt, Carla R. R. Ribas
Summary: Animals integrate into the wider ecosystem by foraging and behavior, targeting scarce and atypical nutrients according to the compensation hypothesis. This study investigated the variation in resource use by ants across habitat strata and trophic levels in Neotropical biomes. The results showed consistent patterns of sugar and lipid preferences across biomes and trophic levels, indicating sugar limitation in the arboreal stratum and lipid limitation on the ground. However, there was no consistent pattern for amino acid and sodium preferences. Overall, the study suggests strong local niche partitioning of sugar and lipid use and the influence of large-scale processes on amino acid and sodium dynamics.
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Andrew M. Rogers, Francoise Lermite, Andrea S. Griffin, Berndt J. van Rensburg, Salit Kark
Summary: This study investigated the influence of the invasive Indian myna and native brushtail possum on urban nest box use by native birds in Australia. They found that possums were the most common nest box users and their occupancy was associated with higher nesting failure rates. The presence of common mynas did not have a significant negative impact on other birds, but better nest box design is needed to provide more nesting opportunities for native birds.
Article
Biology
Rebecca B. Corley, Will Dawson, Tom R. Bishop
Summary: As temperatures rise, it is crucial to understand how ectotherms are affected by thermal stress. Researchers often quantify critical temperatures (CTmax and CTmin) to determine the upper and lower thermal limits at which organisms can no longer function. Bath-based methods are commonly used, but plate-based methods offer automation and are more widely available. However, the unidirectional thermal boundary layer generated by plates results in different temperatures experienced by organisms of different sizes, which can bias critical temperature estimates.
JOURNAL OF THERMAL BIOLOGY
(2023)