A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Pitfall Traps and Winkler Litter Samples for Characterization of Terrestrial Ant (Formicidae) Communities in Temperate Savannas

Abstract

Ants (Formicidae) are one of the most common and abundant terrestrial animals on the planet, occupying every environment except for those perma- nently covered in ice (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990). Ants forage at all trophic levels and often serve as ecosystem engineers, by transporting soil nutrients and acting as mutualists with a variety of arthropods and plants (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990). In addition, many species are successful colonizers of disturbed habitats and respond to environmental change quickly, which often leads to their considerable economic impact as both agricultural and urban pests (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990). Because ants are functionally important and common in most environments, they are increasingly used as bioindicators for ecosystem health (Majer et al. 2007). Using ant communities to study ecosystem health has many advantages because ants are easy to collect, have high species richness, a good taxonomic base, and stationary nesting habits, so they can be sampled over time (Agosti et al. 2000). Ant communities or individuals species have been successfully identified as indicators of environmental stress and disturbance in a variety of tropical environments (Hoffmann and Andersen 2003, Majer et al. 2007); however, little work has been done in temperate environments (but see Kaspari and Majer 2000, Bestelmeyer and Wiens 2001, Fagan et al. 2010, Orlofske et al. 2010). While ant communities may be relatively easy to sample, different techniques are used based on environment and experimental design.