How important is the ant-termite interaction in African rain forests?

自然生态系统为人类提供重要的服务，如生产食物、防止洪水和碳固存。然而，它们越来越受到全球变化的威胁，如栖息地破坏和全球变暖。为了维护自然生态系统，了解它们是如何工作的至关重要。生物群体之间的营养相互作用-一种生物吃掉另一种生物的相互作用-是决定这些生态系统如何构成的主要因素之一。但这些相互作用的性质知之甚少，即使在研究充分的系统中也是如此。其中一个关键的营养相互作用是蚂蚁和白蚁之间的相互作用。这两个群体构成了世界各地热带生态系统生物量的很大一部分，并被称为“生态系统工程师”，即他们是生态系统结构的主要贡献者之一。白蚁通过移动土壤，吃掉大量的枯叶，木材甚至土壤来做到这一点。蚂蚁也移动土壤，也吃各种动物和一些植物。由于大多数种类的蚂蚁至少部分是捕食性的，而白蚁是一种高度丰富和适度营养的物种，因此人们经常认为蚂蚁吃了很多白蚁。然而，这仅在少数物种中得到证实，因为蚂蚁对白蚁的捕食大多发生在地下。我们建议量化蚂蚁和白蚁之间的相互作用，而不是通过直接观察捕食事件，而是通过寻找白蚁的遗传物质的肠道蚂蚁。我们已经从加蓬雨林的土壤中收集了蚂蚁和白蚁的样本。不同种类的蚂蚁已经在形态学上（从它们的外观）被识别出来。对于每种蚂蚁，我们将在多达30个个体的肠道中寻找白蚁DNA。对于它们遗传物质的某些部分，每种白蚁都有自己独特的碱基对序列。因此，我们不仅可以知道某个特定种类的蚂蚁吃了白蚁，还可以知道它吃了哪种白蚁。这将使我们能够将蚂蚁的种类分为三个不同的类别：1。不吃白蚁的人2.那些不吃白蚁，但没有任何偏好的一个特定的白蚁物种，或白蚁物种组3.那些专门研究特定白蚁物种或白蚁物种组的数据将使我们能够为不同种类的蚂蚁和白蚁构建部分食物网，并使我们能够预测栖息地转换和气候变化等过程对自然生态系统结构的影响。

Natural ecosystems provide important services to humans, such as the generation of food, the prevention of flooding, and carbon sequestration. However, they are increasingly under threat from global changes, such as habitat destruction and global warming. In order to maintain natural ecosystems it is vital to understand how they work. Trophic interactions between groups of organisms - interactions involving one organism eating another - are one of the main factors determining how these ecosystems are structured. But the nature of these interactions is poorly known, even in well-studied systems. One such key trophic interaction is that between ants and termites. Both groups make up a large proportion of the biomass in tropical ecosystems across the world, and are known to be 'ecosystem engineers' i.e. they are one of the main contributors to the structure of the ecosystem. Termites do this by moving soil around, and eating large amounts of dead leaves, wood and even soil. Ants also move soil around, and also consume a wide variety of animals and some plants. Since a majority of the species of ants are at least partly predatory, and termites are a highly abundant and moderately nutritious, it has often been assumed that ants eat a lot of termites. However, this has only been demonstrated for a small number of species, as much predation of termites by ants takes place underground. We propose to quantify the interaction between ants and termites not by direct observation of predation events, but by looking for termite genetic material in the guts of ants. We already have collections of ants and termites from soil cores taken in rain forest in Gabon. The different species of ant present have already been identified morphologically (from their appearance). For each species of ant we will search for termite DNA in the guts of up to 30 individuals. For certain parts of their genetic material, each termite species has its own unique sequence of base pairs. Consequently we can tell not only that a particular species of ant has eaten a termite, we can also tell which species of termite it has eaten. This will allow us to divide up the species of ant into three different categories: 1. Those that do not eat termites 2. Those that do eat termites, but do not have any preference for a particular termite species, or group of termite species 3. Those that specialise on a particular termite species or group of termite species The resulting data will allow us to construct a partial food web for the different species of ants and termites, and will allow us to make predictions about the impacts of processes such as habitat conversion and climate change on the structure of natural ecosystems.