Cross-Site: Within- and Across-site Variation in Ant Community Structure and Ecosystem Functions at Three Semiarid LTER Sites

这项研究将采用跨站点和站点内比较使用三个LTER站点，以扩大和丰富我们的知识的生物多样性及其在这些网站的动态，并建立一个基线，了解这些生态系统的一个关键和敏感的组成部分的长期动态。 为了回答这个问题，他们将记录地面蚂蚁的物种和群落如何响应当地和区域的植被和土地利用之间的梯度，在中部平原网站（科罗拉多短草草原），塞维利亚网站（草原和奇瓦瓦沙漠之间的过渡），和Jornada网站（奇瓦瓦沙漠）。 这项工作的重点是地面居住的蚂蚁，因为它们很容易采样和观察，丰富多样，具有强烈的行为和竞争相互作用的特点，对小规模和大规模的环境变化都很敏感，并可能在干旱和半干旱生态系统的物质运动中发挥重要作用。 这些地点代表了温度、降水、植被和地理的梯度。 在每个地点，蚂蚁群落和功能作用将在草为主和灌木为主的植被和放牧强度不同的位置进行比较。 观察觅食的个人和删除的种子和粉虫从食品站的巢穴网站将被用来记录不同功能组的蚂蚁产生的物质流的相对大小不同的栖息地在一个网站，以及这些差异是如何受到影响的因素在区域范围内运作。

This research will employ cross-site and within-site comparisons using three LTER sites to extend and enrich our knowledge of biodiversity and its dynamics at these sites and establish a baseline for understanding the long-term dynamics of a critical and sensitive component of these ecosystems. To answer this question they will document how species and communities of ground-dwelling ants respond to local and regional gradients in vegetation and land-use between the Central Plains site (Colorado shortgrass steppe), the Sevilleta site (transitional between grassland and Chihuahuan Desert), and the Jornada site (Chihuahuan Desert). The work focuses on ground-dwelling ants because they are easily sampled and observed, are abundant and diverse, are characterized by strong behavioral and competitive interactions, are sensitive to both small-scale and large-scale environmental variations, and may play a major role in the movement of materials in arid and semiarid ecosystems. The sites represent a gradient in temperature, precipitation, vegetation, and biogeography. Within each site, ant communities and functional roles will be compared in grass-dominated and shrub- dominated vegetation and in locations differing in grazing intensity. Observations at nest sites of foraging individuals and of removal of seeds and mealworms from food stations will be used to document how the relative magnitude of material flow generated by ants of different functional groups differs among habitats within a site and how these differences are affected by factors operating at the regional scale.