Niche opportunity and ant invasion:: the case of Wasmannia auropunctata in a New Caledonian rain forest
Niche opportunity and ant invasion:: the case of Wasmannia auropunctata in a New Caledonian rain forest
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DOI：
10.1017/s0266467404002019
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发表时间：
2005-01-01
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Dejean, A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Le Breton, J;Jourdan, H;Dejean, A
由于岛上动植物的不平衡分布导致了生态位机会的创造，人们普遍认为岛屿群落对生物入侵的抵抗力较弱。为了从经验上验证这一说法，我们比较了新喀里多尼亚雨林中未受干扰的蚂蚁对资源的利用，该雨林最近被小火蚁Wasmannia auropunctata入侵。我们测试了对食物来源的利用：(1)在所有树干直径大于5厘米的树上放置诱饵；(2)两种可能庇护蚁群的树种上的筑巢地点。在未入侵区，暴露2 h后，本地蚂蚁仅占饵料的44.6%，而在入侵区，所有饵料都被大量的斑点小绥螨工蚁占据。同样，在未入侵区，只有48.9%（%）的木香树和64.51%（64.51%）的木香树庇护蚂蚁，而在入侵区，有92.6 ~ 98.3%的木香树庇护蚂蚁。此外，工蚁参加了本地蚂蚁科（半翅目），他们促进了种群的发展，显著大于本地蚂蚁参加的种群。因此，本地蚂蚁似乎无法有效地利用和保护几个可用的食物来源和筑巢地点，为像斑点小蚂蚁这样的入侵者提供了一个小生境的机会。
Due to the unbalanced distribution of their fauna and flora, which leads to the creation of a niche opportunities, it is generally accepted that island communities offer weak biotic resistance to biological invasion. In order to empirically test this statement, we compared resource use by ants in the understorey of an undisturbed New Caledonian rain forest recently invaded by the little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata. We tested the exploitation of: (1) food sources by placing baits on all trees with trunks greater than 5 cm in diameter; and (2) nesting sites on two tree species likely to shelter ant colonies. In non-invaded areas, the native ants occupied only 44.6'% of the baits after 2 h of exposure, while in invaded areas all the baits were occupied by numerous W. auropunctata workers. Similarly, in non-invaded areas only 48.9(% of Meryta coriacea (Araliaceae) trees and 64.51% of Basselinia pancheri (Arecaceae) sheltered ants, while in invaded areas W. auropunctata nested in 92.6-98.3%,, of these trees. Also, workers attended native Margarodidae (Hemiptera) for which they promoted the development of populations significantly larger than those attended by native ants. Thus native ants appear unable to efficiently exploit and defend several of the available food sources and nesting sites, providing a niche opportunity for an invader like W. auropunctata.