Coping with the cold: minimum temperatures and thermal tolerances dominate the ecology of mountain ants
Coping with the cold: minimum temperatures and thermal tolerances dominate the ecology of mountain ants
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DOI：
10.1111/een.12364
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发表时间：
2017-04-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Parr, Catherine L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bishop, Tom R.;Robertson, Mark P.;Parr, Catherine L.
1.蚂蚁（Hyattera：蚁科）经常被认为是高度嗜热的，这导致了一系列研究调查他们的耐热性。然而，蚂蚁耐热性的地理分布是否符合在其他分类群中发现的两个主要的macropyhsiological规则：Janzen和Brett规则，这是未知的。此外，关于蚂蚁的较低耐热性如何影响行为的数据很少。这两个知识差距在这里解决了抽样蚂蚁跨越1500米的海拔梯度在南部非洲和估计的上限（CTmax）和下限（CTmin）的耐热性的31和28种，分别。蚂蚁丰度和土壤温度也记录了6年的梯度。结果表明，蚂蚁的平均CTmin随环境温度的升高而沿着下降。同时还发现，蚂蚁物种的CTmin与其丰度和当地温度的相关性有关。CTmin低的物种的活性不受温度的限制，而CTmin高的物种则受低温的限制.第一次，这里提供的证据表明，蚂蚁的耐热性是一致的两个主要的宏观生理规则：布雷特的规则和Janzen的规则。生理学，行为和环境之间的机械联系也显示，这突出表明，蚂蚁处理寒冷的能力可能是一个关键，但往往被忽视的因素，允许多个蚂蚁物种在一个环境中取得成功。
1. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are often cited as highly thermophilic and this has led to a range of studies investigating their thermal tolerances. It is unknown, however, if the geographic distribution of ant thermal tolerance conforms to the two major macropyhsiological rules that have been found in other taxa: Janzen's and Brett's rules. In addition, there is a paucity of data on how the lower thermal tolerances of ants are able to influence behaviour.2. These two knowledge gaps were addressed here by sampling ants across a 1500m elevational gradient in southern Africa and estimating the upper (CTmax) and lower (CTmin) thermal tolerances of 31 and 28 species, respectively. Ant abundances and soil temperatures were also recorded across the gradient over 6 years.3. It was found that the average CTmin of the ants declined with elevation along with environmental temperatures. It was also found that the correlation between abundance and local temperature depended on the ant species' CTmin. The activity of species with a low CTmin was not constrained by temperature, whereas those with a high CTmin were limited by low temperatures.4. For the first time, evidence is provided here that the thermal tolerances of ants are consistent with two major macrophysiological rules: Brett's rule and Janzen's rule. A mechanistic link between physiology, behaviour and the environment is also shown, which highlights that the ability of ants to deal with the cold may be a key, but often overlooked, factor allowing multiple ant species to succeed within an environment.