The Hymnoptera order includes several flower-visiting insects (e.g. ants, bees, and wasps) and the coexistence of many different species in the same community can generate interspecific competition. Notwithstanding shared communities,... more
The Hymnoptera order includes several flower-visiting insects (e.g. ants, bees, and wasps) and the coexistence of many different species in the same community can generate interspecific competition. Notwithstanding shared communities, research which evaluates how these taxonomic groups influence a whole community of flower-visiting Hymenoptera is lacking. Moreover, abiotic factors can also impact these floral visits, because each organism responds differently to climatic variations. The goal of this study is to evaluate abiotic factors, specifically relative air humidity and air temperature, which may be able to impact the number and the frequency of interactions between hymenopterans and flowers and to assess the composition and niche organization, by making use of interaction networks, of the entire community of flower-visiting Hymenoptera at the botanical garden of the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro. For the duration of a year, we took samples in that botanical gard...
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Research Interests: Zoology, Entomology, Conservation Biology, Biology, Ecology, and 3 moreAnt, Rainforest, and Null Model
As formigas-cortadeiras sao consideradas os herbivoros dominantes da regiao Neotropical e, portanto, estudos a respeito dos seus multiplos efeitos sobre outros organismos e processos ecossistemicos sao relevantes. Este estudo visa... more
As formigas-cortadeiras sao consideradas os herbivoros dominantes da regiao Neotropical e, portanto, estudos a respeito dos seus multiplos efeitos sobre outros organismos e processos ecossistemicos sao relevantes. Este estudo visa investigar os efeitos dos ninhos de formigas-cortadeiras Atta sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758) sobre a comunidade de artropodes do solo. O estudo foi conduzido na Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu, junto ao Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Coletamos amostras de serrapilheira a intervalos de 8 metros da borda dos ninhos de A. sexdens , ao longo de um transecto linear de 32 metros para extracao da comunidade de artropodes e para estudar a estrutura da serrapilheira. Tambem medimos as temperaturas do ar e do solo, a luz e a umidade relativa do ar onde coletamos as amostras de serrapilheira. Objetivamos averiguar se a estrutura da serrapilheira e as condicoes microclimaticas alteram a estrutura da comunidade de artropodes e se esses efeitos podem ser mediados pelos ninhos de A. se...
Research Interests: Humanities and Biology
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Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems.... more
Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set–which is part of the ATLANTIC SERIES data papers–is a compilation of ant records from collections (18,713 records), unpublished data (29,651 records), and published sources (106,910 records; 1059 references), including papers, theses, dissertations, and book chapters published from 1886 to 2020. In total, the data set contains 153,818 ant records from 7,636 study locations in the Atlantic Forest, representing 10 subfamilies, 99 genera, 1,114 ant species identified with updated taxonomic certainty, and 2,235 morphospecies codes. Our data set reflects the heterogeneity in ant records, which include ants sampled at the beginning of the taxonomic history of myrmecology (the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and more recent ant surveys designed toaddress specific questions in ecology and biology. The data set can be used by researchers to develop strategies to deal with different macroecological and regional-wide questions, focusing on assemblages, species occurrences and distribution patterns. Furthermore, the data can be used to assess the consequences of changes in land use in the Atlantic Forest on different ecological processes. No copyright restrictions apply to the use of this data set, but we request that authors cite this data paper when using these data in publications or teaching events.
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RESUMO: As formigas-cortadeiras são consideradas os herbívoros dominantes da Região Neotropical e, portanto, estudos a respeito dos seus múltiplos efeitos sobre outros organismos e processos ecossistêmicos são relevantes. O presente... more
RESUMO: As formigas-cortadeiras são consideradas os herbívoros dominantes da Região Neotropical e, portanto, estudos a respeito dos seus múltiplos efeitos sobre outros organismos e processos ecossistêmicos são relevantes. O presente estudo tem como objetivo determinar se ninhos de Atta sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758) podem afetar a estrutura da assembleia de artrópodes do solo em um fragmento de Mata Atlântica. Além disso, a fim de determinar os prováveis mecanismos que explicam a possível modificação na estrutura da fauna de artrópodes, foram testadas duas hipóteses: I) Hipótese da Serrapilheira: A. sexdens reduz a disponibilidade de serrapilheira nas proximidades do ninho; II) Hipótese dos Fatores Abióticos: A. sexdens modifica as condições microclimáticas ao redor do seu sítio de nidificação causando aumento da temperatura e luminosidade e redução da umidade relativa do ar. O estudo foi conduzido na Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu, junto à cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Coletamos amost...
Dentre os himenópteros, as formigas se destacam devido à sua abundância, diversidade e importância funcional para os ecossistemas. Apesar disso, as formigas são, muitas vezes, reduzidas ao estereótipo de pragas agrícolas. A cultura tem... more
Dentre os himenópteros, as formigas se destacam devido à sua abundância, diversidade e importância funcional para os ecossistemas. Apesar disso, as formigas são, muitas vezes, reduzidas ao estereótipo de pragas agrícolas. A cultura tem papel fundamental no reforço de estereótipos e até mesmo na criação de preconceitos. Considerando esses fatores, o objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar como as formigas vêm sendo retratadas nos livros brasileiros e como elas podem ser retratadas em futuras publicações ou ações de divulgação científica. Foram encontrados 27 livros no acervo digital da Fundação Biblioteca Nacional publicados no Brasil sobre formigas, desde 1917 até 2017. Desses, 48,14% (n=13) são classificados na categoria "pragas agrícolas", 22,22% (n=6) em "literatura infanto-juvenil", 11,11% (n=3) na categoria "biologia" e os demais 18,51% (n=5) em outras categorias. Historicamente, as formigas têm sido retratadas nos livros brasileiros como pragas agrícolas e apenas no início do século XXI novas temáticas começaram a ser publicadas. Mirmecólogos recentemente têm contribuído para a mudança desse cenário, através de livros com fotos macroscópicas, ilustrações e história natural das espécies. Recomendamos que mais publicações e ações de divulgação científica sejam feitas, utilizando especialmente espécies prestadoras de serviços ecossistêmicos. É importante que haja ações junto às mídias para que essas informações cheguem ao grande público e influenciem na desconstrução do estereótipo de pragas.
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A challenge for studies on the organization of ant assemblages in forest ecosystems is to disentangle the causal effects of species occurrences. The structural and functional attributes of trees can act as environmental filters for... more
A challenge for studies on the organization of ant assemblages in forest ecosystems is to disentangle the causal effects of species occurrences. The structural and functional attributes of trees can act as environmental filters for ground-dwelling ant species influencing resource availability and the microclimate. The biotic interactions, especially competition, can work together with plant characteristics influencing ant species occurrences. To test the importance of tree traits and species interactions on co-occurrence patterns of ants, we collected ground-dwelling ants, with pitfalls and litter sampling, beneath the canopies of four tree species during the rainy and dry seasons in a restored forest. We used five predictors (tree identity, crown size, trunk circumference, litter depth, and leaves density) to model the presence probabilities of ants. Hence, we applied habitat constrained null models in pairwise analyses to disentangle the causal effects of ants co-occurrences. The random pattern predominated in the assemblages, making up 96% of all possible species pairs combinations. Overall, 50% of the species pairs that showed nonrandomness in the ant occurrences were interpreted as resulting from environmental filters, 36% as negative associations and 14% as positive associations. Additionally, we found that the effects of season and the sampling technique on the ant assemblages were also important. We suggest that the ideas of the trees as templates and the paradigm of competition are both useful for understanding pairwise occurrence patterns in ant assemblages, and can be tested using tree traits as predictors in ant species distribution models for running constrained null models.
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Leafcutting ants are considered dominant herbivores in the Neotropical region and, therefore, the studies about their multiple effects on other organisms and ecosystem process are relevant. The present study aims to determine if Atta... more
Leafcutting ants are considered dominant herbivores in the Neotropical region and, therefore, the studies about their multiple effects on other organisms and ecosystem process are relevant. The present study aims to determine if Atta sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758) nests can affect the soil arthropods assemblage structure in an Atlantic forest fragment. Also, so as to determine the probable mechanisms that explain a possible modification in the arthropods fauna structure were tested two hypothesis: I) Litter Hyphotesis: A. sexdens reduce the litter availability in the nest proximities; II) Abiotic Factors Hyphotesis: A. sexdens modifies the microclimatic conditions around of its nidification site, producing a increasing of temperature and luminosity and reduction in relative air humidity. The study was conducted at the Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu, near Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil. We collected litter samples, at intervals of eight meters from edge of A. sexdens nests, along a linear transect of 32 meters, for the extraction of arthropods assemblage and to study the litter structure. We also measured the air and soil temperature, the luminosity and the air relative humidity where we collected the litter samples. We didn’t detect any effect of nest presence on richness, abundance and composition of soil arthropods in the forest fragment studied. Probably, these result was influenced because of A. sexdens nests studied don’t affect the litter availability and the microclimatic conditions around them. Thus, we conclude that the multiple effects that leaf-cutting ants can have on forest may be species dependent.