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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2007

  • Title: Ant Biodiversity at the Simes Tract of Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA
  • Primary Author: Sydne Record (Harvard Forest)
  • Additional Authors: Alexander Arguello (St. Mary's College of Maryland); Aaron Ellison (Harvard University)
  • Abstract:

    Ants comprise a considerable amount of animal biomass in terrestrial ecosystems and play major roles in ecological processes ranging from seed dispersal to soil turnover. An ongoing study at the Simes Tract of Harvard Forest is documenting the effects of invasion and land-use history on ant biodiversity. Surveys from 2003 to 2005 focused on ant structure in hemlock and hardwood microhabitats in the Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment, in which hemlock forest response to deforestation by the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) and to selective logging is being examined. In summer of 2006, we surveyed a greater range of microhabitat types. The objectives of the 2006 survey were to collect rare or elusive species in hemlock and hardwood stands that may have gone uncollected in previous years and to sample forest communities not included in previous years – white pine, swamp, and rocky slope – for ant species unique to these microhabitats. Invasion by the hemlock woolly adelgid will transform late-successional hemlock forests into earlier successional mixed hardwood– white pine forests or red-maple wetlands. Understanding how ant assemblages vary in different habitat types allows for predictions of how hemlock decline could alter the composition of ant assemblages, with implications for a wide range of ecosystem processes.





  • Research Category: Biodiversity Studies
    Invasive Plants, Pests & Pathogens
    Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies