Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
This work was funded by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) project.
Purpose
Ants are Australia’s dominant faunal group in terms of biomass and energy flow. They occupy all trophic levels, act as ecosystem engineers, feature in many mutualistic interactions with plants, and are a key food resource for many vertebrates. Ants are also Australia’s best studied insect group in terms of biogeography and community dynamics. They are the most widely used invertebrate bio-indicators in environmental assessment and monitoring.
Lineage
Data Creation
Ant sampling 1996 - 1997 data: Ants were sampled at five locations along the NATT, ranging from Annaburro Station (approximately 1400 mm mean annual rainfall) in the north to the Kalkarindji region (650 mm) in the south, a distance of approximately 600 km. Within each of the five sites, three 1-ha plots were established, one each on sand, loam and clay soil. Ants were sampled using two 5 x 3 grids of pitfall traps located at opposite corners of each plot, with 10 m spacing between traps (total of 40 traps per plot). Traps were plastic containers 8.5 cm in diameter, partly filled with a 70% ethanol/glycol mixture as a preservative, and operated for a 48-h period on three occasions covering a range of seasonal conditions. Ant abundance and incidence was pooled at the plot level.
Ant sampling 2012 - 2013 data: Ants were sampled at 15 sites along the NATT over a distance of approximately 800 km on two occasions, just before (October) and after (May) the 2012–2013 wet season. Ants were sampled along a 400 m linear transect ~100 m from the edge of the highway. At each site and during each sampling event, 40 pitfall traps (8.5 cm diameter) filled with ethylene glycol were buried flush with the ground and allowed to collect ground-foraging invertebrates for 5 days.
Ant species identification: Ant specimens were identified and curated at the CSIRO's Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre in Darwin by Dr Alan Andersen.
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Method Documentation