Inter-continental patterns in the fine-scale spatial ecology of rain forest termites

In this thesis I describe fine-scale spatial patterns in rain forest termites, from the colony to the assemblage level, sampled from one hectare plots in Central African and South East Asian lowland rain forest. By so doing the ecological interactions that structure this functionally important and abundant soil community were identified. The African termite assemblage, dominated by soil-feeding termites, saturated the upper soil profile (collected from 90% of soil pits). In contrast termites were collected from <50% of soil pits in Asia, with this difference reflecting the lower species densities and abundances of soil-feeding termites in Asian forests. Territoriality and inter-specific competition was shown to be important between colonies of soil-feeding species in the African plot. The termite assemblages were spatially associated with several environmental properties. However these could not explain the spatial patterns in the functional components of the assemblages. Wood-feeding termites were highly patchily distributed, due to the heterogeneous nature of their food material, but also due to possible competitive interactions for this. Humus-feeding termites were homogenously structured, due to the continuous nature of soil as their feeding and nesting material. True soil-feeding termites, unique to the African assemblage, were heterogeneously distributed despite the equally continuous nature of their feeding and nesting material. This structure may arise from facilitative interactions, such as co-operative defence against ant predation which may be intense in African systems, or through the transfer of soil material at different stages of decomposition. Competition for space is apparent in both regions, both at the colony level among soil-feeding genera, and between aggregations of functional groups. Positive and negative biotic interactions, operating at various spatial and functional scales, appear to be important in influencing how assemblage composition is spatially structured. If indeed facilitation is important in maintaining the taxonomic and functional diversity in termite assemblages, it would be valuable to confirm the mechanism(s) that drives this (i.e. predation and/or food transfer), as these may then influence ecosystem stability.Natural Environment Research Counci

Detection of Mitochondrial COII DNA Sequences in Ant Guts as a Method for Assessing Termite Predation by Ants

Termites and ants contribute more to animal biomass in tropical rain forests than any other single group and perform vital ecosystem functions. Although ants prey on termites, at the community level the linkage between these groups is poorly understood. Thus, assessing the distribution and specificity of ant termitophagy is of considerable interest.We describe an approach for quantifying ant-termite food webs by sequencing termite DNA (cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, COII) from ant guts and apply this to a soil-dwelling ant community from tropical rain forest in Gabon. We extracted DNA from 215 ants from 15 species. Of these, 17.2% of individuals had termite DNA in their guts, with BLAST analysis confirming the identity of 34.1% of these termites to family level or better. Although ant species varied in detection of termite DNA, ranging from 63% (5/7; Camponotus sp. 1) to 0% (0/7; Ponera sp. 1), there was no evidence (with small sample sizes) for heterogeneity in termite consumption across ant taxa, and no evidence for species-specific ant-termite predation. In all three ant species with identifiable termite DNA in multiple individuals, multiple termite species were represented. Furthermore, the two termite species that were detected on multiple occasions in ant guts were in both cases found in multiple ant species, suggesting that anttermite food webs are not strongly compartmentalised. However, two ant species were found to consume only Anoplotermes-group termites, indicating possible predatory specialisation at a higher taxonomic level. Using a laboratory feeding test, we were able to detect termite COII sequences in ant guts up to 2 h after feeding, indicating that our method only detects recent feeding events. Our data provide tentative support for the hypothesis that unspecialised termite predation by ants is widespread and highlight the use of molecular approaches for future studies of ant-termite food webs

Inter-continental patterns in the fine-scale spatial ecology of rain forest termites

In this thesis I describe fine-scale spatial patterns in rain forest termites, from the colony to the assemblage level, sampled from one hectare plots in Central African and South East Asian lowland rain forest. By so doing the ecological interactions that structure this functionally important and abundant soil community were identified. The African termite assemblage, dominated by soil-feeding termites, saturated the upper soil profile (collected from 90% of soil pits). In contrast termites were collected from &lt;50% of soil pits in Asia, with this difference reflecting the lower species densities and abundances of soil-feeding termites in Asian forests. Territoriality and inter-specific competition was shown to be important between colonies of soil-feeding species in the African plot. The termite assemblages were spatially associated with several environmental properties. However these could not explain the spatial patterns in the functional components of the assemblages. Wood-feeding termites were highly patchily distributed, due to the heterogeneous nature of their food material, but also due to possible competitive interactions for this. Humus-feeding termites were homogenously structured, due to the continuous nature of soil as their feeding and nesting material. True soil-feeding termites, unique to the African assemblage, were heterogeneously distributed despite the equally continuous nature of their feeding and nesting material. This structure may arise from facilitative interactions, such as co-operative defence against ant predation which may be intense in African systems, or through the transfer of soil material at different stages of decomposition. Competition for space is apparent in both regions, both at the colony level among soil-feeding genera, and between aggregations of functional groups. Positive and negative biotic interactions, operating at various spatial and functional scales, appear to be important in influencing how assemblage composition is spatially structured. If indeed facilitation is important in maintaining the taxonomic and functional diversity in termite assemblages, it would be valuable to confirm the mechanism(s) that drives this (i.e. predation and/or food transfer), as these may then influence ecosystem stability.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceNatural Environment Research CouncilGBUnited Kingdo

Keeping Faith with Keeping Faith: Conversations About A Conversation with Michael White

This interview took place in May of 2007. Our intention was to hold a conversation two years after the passing of Michael White, based on the interview published in JST in 2009 (Duvall & Young, 2009). In keeping with the narrative tradition of telling, re-tellings, and re-tellings of re-tellings, we held three conversations on that day. The first conversation involved Jim, a faculty member in the doctoral program in family therapy at Nova Southeastern University, Paul, also a faculty member, and Marcela, who is completing her doctoral work and who has published and presented internationally on narrative issues. Witnessing this conversation, and subsequently reflecting on it, were Michelle, a doctoral student working on her dissertation about narrative approaches with families of perpetrators of crimes, Corinne, who is completing her dissertation on outsider witness practices with adolescent girls in a school setting, and Olivia, a doctoral student who is approaching the dissertation phase. The first group then responded briefly to this reflection. The introduction to the conversation with Duvall, Young, and White concludes with: “We were particularly interested in Michael’s notion of keeping faith, staying true to those important sentiments, learnings, and circumstances in life that clarify what is important that we give value to” (p. 1). The idea of keeping faith forms the primary path for this conversation. But, as with most conversations, many excursions were made down unexpected side-paths. We are sure that if we held this conversation again, that it would not take the same form as this one. In fact, prompted by this conversation and in hopes of enjoying more and different ones, we have begun scheduling more opportunities for conversations like this one, both online and in person. We hope this conversation might spark others

Species-level detection rates for termite DNA in ant guts.

<p>Only ant species with >5 individuals presented here, with the exception of known termite predators in the genera <i>Hypoponera</i>, and <i>Odontomachus</i>.</p><p>*Ant species for which multiple cryptic molecular clades were present, but for which no morphological correlates were found. Since not all ant individuals were sequenced, the morphological identifications for these species were retained.</p><p>Species-level detection rates for termite DNA in ant guts.</p

Maximum likelihood phylogeny of termites consumed by ants based on COII sequences.

<p>Phylogeny rooted to Rhinotermitidae. Node values give bootstrap support. Scale bar represents substitutions per site based on the GTR+I+G model.</p

Bipartite hypogeic (below soil-surface) food web visualising ant predation on termites in rain forest in Gabon.

<p>For termites (lower level), abbreviations are as follows. Ano = <i>Anoplotermes</i> group; Mac = Macrotermitinae; Ter = Termitinae; Rhi = Rhinotermitidae. For ants, see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0122533#pone.0122533.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a> for full genus names. Even with this small dataset there are three species of ants that prey on more than one termite species, and two termite species that are preyed on by multiple ant species. Note that <i>Pheidole</i> sp 8 is included here, although it was not included in statistical analyses, since we tested fewer than six ant individuals for this species.</p

The ECOTROP field-school: integrating hands-on DNA barcoding into an education program for the census of invertebrate biodiversity in the Lopé National Park, Gabon

International audienc

The ECOTROP field school: Inventorying Afro-tropical invertebrate biodiversity through student activities and the use of DNA barcoding.

International audienceTropical ecosystems have been popularized as the most biodiversehabitats on Earth. However, biodiversity research in the tropics hasmainly focused on charismatic vertebrates and higher plants so far,neglecting invertebrates that represent the bulk of local species richness. As a consequence, our knowledge of tropical invertebrate communities remains strongly impeded by both Linnaean and Wallaceanshortfalls, and identifying species in a study site often remains a formidable challenge that inhibits the use of these organisms as indicators for ecological and conservation studies. Here, we present asummary of the results of sampling activities conducted by studentsduring the ECOTROP field-school, a training program in tropical ecology where African and European students gained training in fieldwork and study design, and became involved in the front-endprocessing of samples for DNA barcoding. Most of the activities wereoriented towards local surveys of invertebrate biodiversity in forestand savannah ecosystems of the northern section of Lope NationalPark in Gabon. During five successive editions of the program, a totalof more than 12 500 invertebrates were sampled, and more than11 000 barcodes were generated. More data will be added in the nearfuture through the processing of samples obtained from two Malaisetraps deployed in a forest and a savannah for 12 months in 2014 and2015. A total of nearly 3000 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs, as a proxyfor species diversity) have been obtained to date, most of which belongto Lepidoptera (1664) and Coleoptera (709). For many groups of interest, the number of BINs observed exceeded the number of speciesrecorded for the country. This highlights how combining standardized sampling, DNA barcoding, and experimental learning can significantly enhance local knowledge of biodiversity and ecologicalcommunity dynamics, while training young biologists to meet thefuture challenges of biological conservation

The ECOTROP field school: Inventorying Afro-tropical invertebrate biodiversity through student activities and the use of DNA barcoding.

International audienceTropical ecosystems have been popularized as the most biodiversehabitats on Earth. However, biodiversity research in the tropics hasmainly focused on charismatic vertebrates and higher plants so far,neglecting invertebrates that represent the bulk of local species richness. As a consequence, our knowledge of tropical invertebrate communities remains strongly impeded by both Linnaean and Wallaceanshortfalls, and identifying species in a study site often remains a formidable challenge that inhibits the use of these organisms as indicators for ecological and conservation studies. Here, we present asummary of the results of sampling activities conducted by studentsduring the ECOTROP field-school, a training program in tropical ecology where African and European students gained training in fieldwork and study design, and became involved in the front-endprocessing of samples for DNA barcoding. Most of the activities wereoriented towards local surveys of invertebrate biodiversity in forestand savannah ecosystems of the northern section of Lope NationalPark in Gabon. During five successive editions of the program, a totalof more than 12 500 invertebrates were sampled, and more than11 000 barcodes were generated. More data will be added in the nearfuture through the processing of samples obtained from two Malaisetraps deployed in a forest and a savannah for 12 months in 2014 and2015. A total of nearly 3000 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs, as a proxyfor species diversity) have been obtained to date, most of which belongto Lepidoptera (1664) and Coleoptera (709). For many groups of interest, the number of BINs observed exceeded the number of speciesrecorded for the country. This highlights how combining standardized sampling, DNA barcoding, and experimental learning can significantly enhance local knowledge of biodiversity and ecologicalcommunity dynamics, while training young biologists to meet thefuture challenges of biological conservation