Ground-dwelling ant diversity in Maliau Basin, Borneo: Evaluation of hand-sorting methods to estimate ant diversity

Abstract

*[In the present study, employing the hand-sorting of small soil cores, we carried out the first survey of ground-dwelling ants in Maliau Basin Conservation Area, in Sabah, Borneo, to compare disturbed & undisturbed forest ant communities and to evaluate the sampling methods, performance in assessing species richness & characterizing community structure of the ant fauna. For this purpose we set a 5-m long & 1-m wide transect, consisting of five 1-m2 sections, in disturbed & undisturbed forest plots in the area, & compared the sampling results of hand-sorting between the 2 plots. A total of 50 ant species, in 28 genera in 8 subfamilies, were collected in the 2 plots, of which 32 species in 20 genera were collected from the undisturbed plot & 24 species in 18 genera from the disturbed plot. According to estimates of expected species richness, the hand-sorting of soil cores allowed for the collection of 66.7 to 80.0% of the ant species expected in the undisturbed plot, & 83.3 to 88.9% in the disturbed plot. Besides lower species richness, the ant community in the disturbed plot had lower species evenness & a different species composition in comparison to undisturbed plot, which may be related with environmental changes in the plot, due to open canopy. These results indicate that hand-sorting of small soil cores is a method that could provide reliable information, not only to estimate species richness at a site, but also to evaluate differences in community structure between sites.] Cited from: ANTBIB A Bibliography of Ant Systematics by Philip S. Ward, et al. http://www.antcat.org/references?commit=new&page=1&q=&search_selector=Search+for&whats_new=true