Testing multiple hypotheses of community assembly using a tropical insect: Twig-nesting ants in a coffee agroecosystem

对生态群落集合的研究提供了关于生物体位于何处、何时以及为什么的信息。 这些知识对于理解生物多样性的维持以及生物的分布如何应对环境变化至关重要。 大多数研究的驱动程序的热带生物群落组装仅限于观察静态组合，因为操作是不切实际的或不可能的。 此外，社区集会研究通常是在自然生态系统中进行的，尽管农业区占土地面积的很大一部分。 该项目利用一个容易操纵的树栖树枝筑巢蚂蚁社区在咖啡农业生态系统的实验探索多种因素影响社区组装。 主要目的是研究树枝筑巢蚂蚁的生活史特征（如殖民地的大小，繁殖和传播能力，竞争能力），蚂蚁群落对农业干扰的反应，以及环境变化和与其他蚂蚁的竞争对巢殖民和殖民地生存的影响。 这项工作将在墨西哥南部的一个咖啡农场进行，将涉及调查和操纵研究。 具体而言，调查将在最近经历了剧烈农业干扰（森林树冠砍伐）的田地和未砍伐的对照田地进行。两个大规模的实验与巢添加和相互移植将直接比较多个因素对殖民地的招聘和survival.Understanding咖啡农业生态系统中的蚂蚁社区组装的因素的影响将有助于咖啡管理和教育目标。 从保护和经济角度来看，咖啡农业生态系统极为重要。遮荫咖啡农场为受到威胁的热带多样性提供栖息地，咖啡作物为数百万人提供生计。 蚂蚁是影响热带农业生态系统资源的重要捕食者。树枝筑巢蚂蚁是咖啡害虫的生物控制剂，因此阐明有助于蚂蚁组装的因素将为农民的管理决策提供信息，并有助于可持续的农业生产。 该项目将促进本科生和研究生的独立研究教育，并将侧重于增加女生态学家的多样性和代表性。收集的蚂蚁将增加博物馆的收藏，培训学生昆虫分类和识别，并为墨西哥蚂蚁的实地和在线指南做出贡献。

The study of assembly of ecological communities provides information about where organisms are located, when, and why. This knowledge is critical for understanding maintenance of biodiversity and how the distribution of organisms will respond to environmental change. Most studies of drivers of community assembly of tropical organisms are limited to observation of static assemblages because manipulations are impractical or impossible. Further, community assembly studies are generally undertaken in natural ecosystems despite that agricultural areas cover large fractions of land area. This project takes advantage of an easily manipulated arboreal twig-nesting ant community in a coffee agroecosystem to experimentally explore multiple factors influencing community assembly. The main objectives are to examine twig-nesting ant life history traits (e.g. colony size, reproductive and dispersal capabilities, and competitive ability), responses of ant communities to agricultural disturbance, and impacts of environmental change and competition with other ants on nest colonization and colony survival. The work will be conducted in a coffee farm in southern Mexico and will involve surveys and manipulative studies. Specifically, surveys will take place in a field that recently experienced drastic agricultural disturbance (forest canopy cutting), and in an uncut control field. Two large-scale experiments with nest additions and reciprocal transplants will directly compare the influence of multiple factors on colony recruitment and survival.Understanding the factors driving community assembly of ants in coffee agroecosystems will contribute to coffee management and educational goals. Coffee agroecosystems are extremely important from conservation and economic standpoints. Shaded coffee farms provide habitat to threatened tropical diversity and coffee crops provide livelihood to millions. Ants are abundant, important predators that influence resources in tropical agroecosystems. Twig-nesting ants are biological control agents of coffee pests, thus elucidating factors contributing to ant assembly will inform farmer management decisions and contribute to sustainable agricultural production. The project will advance education in independent research for undergraduate and graduate students, and will focus on increasing diversity and representation of women ecologists. The ants collected will enhance museum collections, train students in insect taxonomy and identification, and to contribute to field and online guides for the ants of Mexico.