COS 167-1 - Comparing ant communities across urban-rural landscapes in Massachusetts

Abstract: Urbanization and agricultural expansion are two intense forms of human land-use change worldwide which have dramatic consequences on biodiversity and biotic community structure. Ants make an ideal study organism to examine the effects of anthropogenic land-use on organismal communities due to their ecological diversity and widespread prevalence in terrestrial habitats. In this study, we examined differences in ant biodiversity, species richness, and community composition between urban parks, farms, and forest fragments. We also measured environmental factors that vary among each of these three habitat types to understand which properties associated with land-use are most important in determining ant community composition. We sampled a total of 45 sites across central Massachusetts and found forest fragments to have a different composition of ant species compared to urban parks and farms. Parks and farms hosted more urban-exploiting ant species, and species that rely on leaf litter and acorns for nesting found more frequently in forests, some being exclusive to either parks/farms or forest fragments. We also identified plant species richness as the primary factor associated with ant species richness. Although forests were shown to house a unique composition of ants, we found no significant differences in species richness among our three habitat types. Our findings suggest that human land-use can influence which species of ants are able to successfully inhabit an area. Future work should look further into the plant groups that are important in determining ant species richness in the Northeast US, and the roles of urban heat islands on exploiter success.