A harvester ant responds to habitat fragmentation: Population structure, dispersal strategy, queen number and phenotypic variation
Abstract
Effects of habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in today's world. Harvester ants are keystone species. The European harvester ant Messor structor is restricted to near-natural, dry grassland, a type of habitat heavily fragmented in Lower Austria. Colonies of this species can contain one or more queens (monogyny vs. polygyny) and the queens vary in size (queen polymorphism). Six hypotheses are posed to describe the potential effects of habitat fragmentation on Messor structor populations with respect to population structure, dispersal strategy, queen number and morphological variations of individuals. They include the reduction of genetic variation within the population, the occurrence of inbreeding, an increased production of small gynes, an increased frequency of polygynous colonies and reduced vs. increased morphological variation of workers, gynes and males (competing hypotheses). An interdisciplinary approach is proposed to test the above hypotheses. This involves a combination of field methods (assessing nest densities, GPS mapping of populations), molecular methods (sequencing of mtDNA and determination of microsatellite allele frequencies), morphology (dissection of gynes, morphometry of workers, gynes and males) and advanced statistical analyses (computation of phylogenetic diversity indices, statistical parsimony network, nested clade analysis, maximum likelihood gene flow analysis). Beyond merely improving our basic ecological knowledge, the results of this study will foster practical conservation measures.
population structure dispersal strategy habitat fragmentation conservation genetics queen polymorphism
Publikationen
Project staff
Christian Stauffer
Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Christian Stauffer
christian.stauffer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-91631
Project Leader
15.12.2003 - 15.09.2006
BOKU partners
External partners
James Cook University, Townsville
Prof. Dr. Ross Crozier
partner
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz
Dr. Bernhard Seifert
partner
Darmstadt University of Technology, Institut für Zoologie
Prof. Dr. Alfred Buschinger
partner