engleski

Progressive vegetation succession of fen habitats promotes the lack of habitat specialist ants

Vegetation succession, drainage, and climate change are causes of peatland habitat loss in the Western Balkans. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are one of the most ecologically important invertebrate taxa in terrestrial ecosystems. To explore whether, and to what extent, fen ant communities are specialized, we sampled an alkaline fen, adjacent habitats undergoing vegetation succession, and the surrounding beech forest in west-central Croatia. Here, we show how a fen and its surrounding habitats differ in ant community structure, and which of the environmental variables (soil temperature, moisture, and pH) have the strongest impact in shaping those communities. In the two growing seasons of sampling we recorded 16 ant species, none of which were peatland specialists. While species richness did not differ between the sites, species diversity was the highest at a succession site. Specific environmental conditions of the fen limit colony establishment and allow survival of a small subset of ant species from the surrounding habitats. Consequently, only two ant species (Myrmica rubra and Lasius platythorax) were abundant at the fen site. Their presence at other study sites indicates that the fen fauna is composed of generalist species. The fen and forest community composition differed from the successional sites, and it was most strongly affected by soil pH. The fauna of these habitat islands completely lacks peatland-specific ant species. Knowing more about communities of these disappearing habitats will help us predict future biodiversity losses in similar habitats threatened by vegetation succession.

Croatia; Balkan; Formicidae; Hymenoptera; Peatlands; pH; Tyrphobiontic

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