Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization

Abstract During the last decades, urbanization has been highlighted as one of the main causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Among organisms commonly associated with urban environments, ants occupy urbanized green areas and can live both inside and around human settlements. However, despite the inc...

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Autores principales:	Wesley Dáttilo, Ian MacGregor-Fors
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b79f682c87d541db8e5ccadf33a20637
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b79f682c87d541db8e5ccadf33a206372021-12-02T11:39:47ZAnt social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization10.1038/s41598-021-85538-22045-2322https://doaj.org/article/b79f682c87d541db8e5ccadf33a206372021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85538-2https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract During the last decades, urbanization has been highlighted as one of the main causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Among organisms commonly associated with urban environments, ants occupy urbanized green areas and can live both inside and around human settlements. However, despite the increasing number of studies on the ecological dynamics of ant species developed mainly in temperate urban ecosystems, there is still little knowledge about the behavioral strategies that allow ant species to live and even thrive within cities. In this study, we evaluated the role of urbanization in shaping ant communities, including their social foraging, considering built cover as a gradually changing variable that describes an urban gradient. Specifically, we assessed whether species richness, composition, and the proportion of exotic ant species are related to an urban gradient in a medium-sized Neotropical city immersed in a cloud forest context in Mexico. Moreover, we evaluated the social foraging strategies that could promote ant species coexistence in an urban environment. In general, and contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that the built cover gradient affected the richness, composition, or proportion of exotic ant species foraging on food resources, indicating a filtering and simplification of ant communities given by urbanization. Moreover, we show for the first time that urban ant species exhibited a “discovery-defense strategy”, whereby the ant species with the greatest capacity to discover new food resources were those that showed the greatest ability to monopolize it after 120 min of observation, regardless of the type of resource (i.e., tuna or honey bait). Our findings have a direct impact on the knowledge about how urbanization shapes ant communities and behavior, by showing the foraging strategies of ant species that feed on similar food resources present that allows them to coexist in urban environments.Wesley DáttiloIan MacGregor-ForsNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Wesley Dáttilo Ian MacGregor-Fors Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization
description	Abstract During the last decades, urbanization has been highlighted as one of the main causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Among organisms commonly associated with urban environments, ants occupy urbanized green areas and can live both inside and around human settlements. However, despite the increasing number of studies on the ecological dynamics of ant species developed mainly in temperate urban ecosystems, there is still little knowledge about the behavioral strategies that allow ant species to live and even thrive within cities. In this study, we evaluated the role of urbanization in shaping ant communities, including their social foraging, considering built cover as a gradually changing variable that describes an urban gradient. Specifically, we assessed whether species richness, composition, and the proportion of exotic ant species are related to an urban gradient in a medium-sized Neotropical city immersed in a cloud forest context in Mexico. Moreover, we evaluated the social foraging strategies that could promote ant species coexistence in an urban environment. In general, and contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that the built cover gradient affected the richness, composition, or proportion of exotic ant species foraging on food resources, indicating a filtering and simplification of ant communities given by urbanization. Moreover, we show for the first time that urban ant species exhibited a “discovery-defense strategy”, whereby the ant species with the greatest capacity to discover new food resources were those that showed the greatest ability to monopolize it after 120 min of observation, regardless of the type of resource (i.e., tuna or honey bait). Our findings have a direct impact on the knowledge about how urbanization shapes ant communities and behavior, by showing the foraging strategies of ant species that feed on similar food resources present that allows them to coexist in urban environments.
format	article
author	Wesley Dáttilo Ian MacGregor-Fors
author_facet	Wesley Dáttilo Ian MacGregor-Fors
author_sort	Wesley Dáttilo
title	Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization
title_short	Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization
title_full	Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization
title_fullStr	Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization
title_full_unstemmed	Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization
title_sort	ant social foraging strategies along a neotropical gradient of urbanization
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b79f682c87d541db8e5ccadf33a20637
work_keys_str_mv	AT wesleydattilo antsocialforagingstrategiesalonganeotropicalgradientofurbanization AT ianmacgregorfors antsocialforagingstrategiesalonganeotropicalgradientofurbanization
_version_	1718395723100192768

Ant social foraging strategies along a Neotropical gradient of urbanization

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