Monday, 15 November 2004
D0067

Ants as indicators of biodiversity: Biodiversity of ants in different successional plots of conservation reserve program land

Sarah J. Phipps, sjm2b4@mizzou.edu, University of Missouri, Columbia, Department of Entomology, Columbia, MO

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) began in 1986 with one of the main goals of taking erodible or eroding lands from agriculture production and establishing perennial vegetation on the land to enhance habitat for wildlife populations. Little research has been conducted looking at whether this goal has been accomplished. Ants have many attributes that make them great candidates of indicating restoration success of CRP land. Not only do some ant species require specific habitats of which to live, ants are also involved in every level of the trophic system, and have a numerical and biomass dominance in almost every habitat throughout the world. Moreover, a fairly good taxonomic knowledge base is known on them. Ant populations were examined on twelve plots of CRP land in mid-Missouri of four different ages (0, 3, 8, and 15 years) in June and September 2004 studying how ant communities diversify as CRP land ages. Sampling consisted of pitfall traps, grass litter samples, hand collecting, and salt water extractions of soil samples. In order to quantify species diversity for comparison between sites a Shannon-Weiner Index was used to account for both richness and evenness of the sites ant community. The results of this study should provide insight on the success of long term restoration processes and additionally could provide a mechanism of surveying biological resources indicating restoration success of disturbed areas.


Species 1: Hymenoptera Formicidae (ants)
Keywords: biodivesrsity

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