Características estruturais de plantas determinam riqueza de espécies de formigas no Cerrado? / Do plant structural characteristics determine ant species richness in Cerrado?

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

Species diversity is affected by some processes that operate in several spatial scales. In local scale the biological and physical interactions are extremely important for the process of diversity determination. The aim of this study was investigate whether structural characteristics of trees, such as crown architecture, bark rugosity and size of the plant, influence ant species diversity, testing the following hypotheses: 1) plants with higher bark rugosity have more ant species; 2) plants with thicker suber have more ant species; 3) plants with higher crown architecture have more ant species; and 4) larger plants have more ant species. The sampling was carried out with the use of pitfall traps in 120 plants, in four plots of Cerrado, in the FLONA of Paraopeba, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We sampled 73 ant species in 46 tree species. Ant species richness decreased with bark rugosity.Suber thickness, crown architecture, and plant size did not influence ant richness species in this cerrado area. We observed that the evaluation of local factors in very small spatial scales, such as plant structure, growth form, size and plots in which the plants are inserted, are fundamental to understand ant species richness in Cerrado. In this way, we suggest that the processes in small scales, such as structural characteristics and plant species, as well as resources, may be determinant factors of ant richness species in Cerrado environments.

ASSUNTO(S)

ant insect-plant relationship entomologia agricola ecologia do cerrado formiga cerrado ecology relação inseto-planta

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