Abstract
Ants in tropical forests participate in a wide variety of processes, but human activity can disturb their communities and cause the loss of key species. In this study, we evaluated the effects of human disturbance on the alpha and beta diversity of ant assemblages in a successional gradient of secondary forests growing in abandoned maize fields of the Lacandon region, previously covered by tropical rain forest. Our results show that the alpha diversity of ant species and genera increases with the age of the secondary forests; however, deforestation could cause the loss of certain genera. The turnover of ant species is low along the successional gradient and it is regulated by ecological filters. Secondary forests serve as a refuge for certain ant species and as their successional age increases, they tend to recover the species richness of the mature forest.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Grants from SEMARNAT-CONACyT and SEP-CONACyT, Mexico (Grants 2002-01-0597 and 2005-51043) and PAPIIT-UNAM IN227210 to MMR. We thank Dr. Miguel Martínez Ramos of the Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, UNAM, for providing the facilities used during the field work. We also thank Eric Marcon and coauthors for providing the R code of their program before the official publication of their paper. We thank Israel Estrada for the maps of the region. We are grateful to the Jamangape family for their help with the field work. Finally, this work is dedicated to the loving memory of Ramón Rocha.
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Rocha-Ortega, M., Favila, M.E. The recovery of ground ant diversity in secondary Lacandon tropical forests. J Insect Conserv 17, 1161–1167 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-013-9597-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-013-9597-1