Ant communities in two cycles of an irrigated rice cultivation in the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Keywords:
Formicidae, Insecta, Soil ant fauna, Rice cultivationAbstract
Some ant species can explore and adapt themselves to disturbed environments, while others undergo large reductions in their population density and could
become locally extinct. Flooding is considered a major disturbance to the dynamics of soil organism populations. Irrigated rice fields have their own periods for planting, harvesting and time between harvests, characterized by variations in the degree of flooding, which could change the richness and composition of a
soil organism community. This work aimed to evaluate the ant communities during the three different periods (planting, harvesting and time between harvests)
during two cycles of the rice cultivation in an area (29º31’S; 50º54’W) located on the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul. By cycle, for each period, ants were sampled using sardine baits and soil traps along three 50m transects. For each period in both cycles, five replications were carried out. The total richness observed was 24 species. The estimated richness for bait samples (Sest=19.9) and for soil traps (Sest=24.9) was similar to the observed richness for each one of these techniques, indicating that the sample size was sufficient. In each period of the two cycles, the dominant species was Solenopsis invicta Buren. Comparing the richness observed in the three periods of Cycle 1 with those of Cycle 2, the difference was
not significant (Chi-square=0.631; d.f=2). There were also no significant differences when comparing the periods of Cycle 1 (Chi-square=0.500; d.f.=2) or
of Cycle 2 (Chi-square=0.298; d.f.=2).
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