Assessment of Ant's Biodiversity in human land use habitats using the SDR software

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2366304/v1

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Assessment of Ant's Biodiversity in human land use habitats using the SDR software

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2366304/v1

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Ants are a major part of the ecosystem as they assist in the decomposition process and improve soil quality. They are a great component of animal biomass and act as ecosystem engineers. We assessed the species richness and biodiversity of these arthropods in the habitats with varying degrees of human impact in Shiraz, Fars Province, southern Iran. To this end, 6 habitats (a farm, a dry land and a natural garden in the countryside, and three old gardens (Be’sat, Janat, Babakoohi) in the city) were chosen and sampled bimonthly during 2015–2106. A total of 6270 ant workers belonging to 30 species, 12 genera, and 3 subfamilies were recorded. The most specious subfamily was Formiciniae (16 Specious) followed by Myrmicinae (12 Species), and Dolichoderinae (2 Species). All biodiversity indices (Shannon wiener, Simpson and Margalof) showed a greater diversity in both natural garden and urban landscape: Be’sat and Janat garden, with the lowest amount of human effects, respectively as well as Babakoohi and the lowest in the agricultural and dry land, which had the most effect of human disturbance. Although a significant difference was observed with the habitats (F, 4.255, P = 0.004) and the months (F, 4.327, P = 0.002) of sampling, there was not a significant difference between Babakoohi, natural garden, Janat and Be’sat gardens ((P > 0.05)) nor between field and dry land (P > 0.05), and those two habitats had fewer species compared with the natural garden and city landscape. The highest Jaccard similarity index (0.773) was seen between Janat garden in the city landscape and Babakoohi and then with both Janat and Be’sat gardens (0.731); however, the lowest (0.48) was seen between dry land and Be’sat garden. The result showed that the species composition in the city landscape including different gardens is more similar than the farm and dry land. The Jaccard similarity index between dry land and farm was 0.58 which indicated the low similarity of the ant species in those regions.

Ants

Biodiversity

Iran

Species richness

Ants from the order Hymenoptera and Formicidae family are eusocial insects that occupy the most ecological niches and are a main component of the ecosystem by improving the soil and assisting in the decomposition process (Watanasit & Bickel, 2000). They represent a great part of the animal biomass and are estimated to contribute 15–20% (on average) and nearly 25% (in the tropics) of terrestrial animal biomass, exceeding that of the vertebrates (Shultz, 2000). Ants appeared on earth from 140 to 160 million years ago, much before the arrival of human beings, during the latest early Cretaceous. They are involved in underground processes and act as ecosystem engineers to adjust the physical and chemical features of the soil to plants, microorganisms, and other soil organisms (Folgarait, 1998). The known living ants involve 16 subfamilies, 296 genera, and more than 13800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified (ant web, 2021).

Ants are among the taxa which can persist in highly managed urban environments. They are found in nearly all urban habitats and have strong ecological and economic impacts (Sanford et al., 2008; Folgarait, 1998). They can act as predators, prey, detritivores, seed dispersers, and herbivores in natural habitats and play an important role in collecting and cleaning cities of garbage and human waste in urban habitats (Frankie and Ehler,1978; Way and Khoo, 1992; Folgarait, 1998).

Ants are also considered good biological indicators due to their mutualistic behavior with both flora and fauna, their presence in both intact and disturbed habitat and their rapidly respond to environmental variables (Majer, 1983; Andersen, 1990). Among the human activities, urbanization has the most effect on habitat loss and frequently eliminates a large number of native species. The diversity of ants is high but they are highly sensitive to human impact, which obviously reduces its richness (Folgarait, 1998). The sampling of ants is relatively easy and does not require expertise (Greenslade and Greenslade, 1984; Agosti and Alonso, 2000), together, these qualities suggest that ants provide high levels of information about an ecologically and numerically dominant group.

Although there have been many studies on ants in Iran (Paknia and Kami, 2007; Paknia et al., 2008, 2010; Firouzi et al., 2011; Ghahari et al.,2009, 2011, 2015; Hossein Nezhad et al, 2012; Mohammadi et al., 2012; Moradloo et al, 2015; Hosseini et al., 2015; Torabi et al, 2017; Mohseni et al, 2017; Khalili-Moghadam et al. 2019; Samin et al. 2020, Khalili Moghadam et al. 2021), the number of recorded species is much less than the number of species discovered in the world. Moradloo and Pashaei Rad. (2005) reported 25 species belong to 12 genera from the Zanjan province, west of Iran. Latibari et al. (2017) reported 11 species from Khorasan Razavi. Torabi et al (2017) recorded 19 species of ants belonging to 13 genera from 3 subfamilies. Ghahari et al. (2009) in their revisions of ants from rice fields reported 15 species from 11 genera and 3 subfamilies. Mohseni et al. (2017) reported 32 species belonging to 13 genera and 3 sub-families from the central parts of Iran. Ghahari (2021) reported 27 species from 12 genera and three subfamilies from the forest regions of northern Iran. Samin et al., (2020) collected 15 species in 10 genera from which four species were new records for the fauna of Iran. However, Kiyani et al. (2021) in their revision of ant fauna of fig orchards of the Estahban, Fars province, recorded 11 species belonging to 8 genera from three sub-families. Notably, Radchenkof and Alipanah (2004) reported the subfamily Aenictinae for the first time in Iran, and Paknia et al (2008) in their checklist of the ants of Iran reported 110 species from 26 genera belonging to six subfamilies of the Formicidae (Formicinae, Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae, Dorylinae and Aenictinae). However, in most researches, the ant species belonged to only 3 subfamilies (Formicinae, Myrmecinae and Dolichoderinae). The newest report of the ant’s species from Iran revealed 248 species, from seven subfamilies and 37 genera in Iran (Pashaei Rad et al, 2018).

Due to the need for determining the effect of urban development on biodiversity and preserve it in urban ecosystems and the absence of relevant studies, our study focused on the biodiversity of ants in urban habitats such as a natural garden that resemble more natural habitats, city gardens, a disturbed garden in order to urbanite, and an agricultural field in Shiraz vicinity, Fars province, south Iran. The study’s objective was to determine the diversity and distribution of ants in different ecological habitats. This investigation will produce insights into the effect of urbanization on diversity, distribution, and richness of ant species.

Sampling sites and habitat

Shiraz is a large city in Iran and the most significant city at the center of Fars province (at the central zone of south Zagros), at a height of 1486 m above sea level. Shiraz's climate has distinct seasons and is overall classified as a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk), with a short distance from a hot semi-arid climate (BSh) or a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa) (Shiraz, 2011). Summers are hot in this region, with a July average high of 38.8°C (101.8°F), cool winters, an average low temperature below freezing in December and January and around 300 mm (12 in) of rain falls each year. Shiraz is the city of gardens and has an array of gorgeous gardens which have existed in the city’s history for a long time.

To assess the biodiversity of ants, we chose 3 gardens in the city (Be’sat, Janat and Babakoohi gardens) and the other out of the city (a Natural garden with various trees and shrubs). We also chose two habitats with the most human impact (agricultural land and a dry land) in the city. The Be’sat garden is new but Janat garden is one of the most traditional gardens mentioned as the sign of urban parks in Shiraz. There are several plant and tree species, beautiful cypresses and pine trees and both gardens paved with grass and tall and beautiful cedar trees, lawns, and flowers. The Natural garden and Babakoohi with different species of trees and shrubs are located around the city. Also the agricultural habitat which covers the multiple cropping fields were chosen at out of the city. However, the dry land was a destroyed garden that has now been demolished for the construction of residential houses, though in the past there was a variety of vegetation, including pomegranate trees and shrubs.

Methodology: During the study period of April 2015 to May 2016, samples were collected at two-month intervals. The direct sampling technique was employed by the application of 10 quadrates (2×2m quadrats) for ant collection. All ants on the ground or the plants within the quadrat were directly hand-captured with the help of a fine brush or by an aspirator and stored in 70% ethanol. All sampling occurred between 8:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. to standardize the collection and reduce variation due to time or temperature differences. The preserved specimens were pinned and labelled for further identification. Ant samples were examined under a stereo microscope and identified by the use of different keys (Agosti and Collingwood, 1987; Collingwood and Agosti, 1996). The identified specimens were confirmed by Dr. Lech Borowiec, University of Wroclaw, Poland.

Data analysis

The estimates of species richness were computed with total species such as Choa1&2, Jacknife 1, Jacknife 2, and Bootstrap. We also estimated the Simpson index of diversity (D), the Shannon–Wiener index (H), the Margalef and the evenness (E) with SDR (4) Software (Seaby and Henderson, 2006).

The index of evenness is calculated as:

E =\(\frac{Hˊ}{lnS}\)

Where Hˊ is the Shannon index and s is the number of the species.

The difference in ant species richness and diversity between different habitats and in different sampling dates was also determined using one-way ANOVA in SPSS22.

Also, the similarity index was calculated for different habitats based on the Jaccard index (J)

J =\(\frac{a}{a+b+c}\)

where a is the number of species found in both habitats that are being compared, b is the number of species found in habitat 1, and c is the number of species found in habitat 2. The similarity index (J) is between 0 and 1, with 0 representing no species in common and 1 representing 100% similarity in the species composition of the two habitats that are compared (Magurran, 2004).

A total of 6270 individuals were collected during the study period, including 30 species of ants from 12 genera of 3 subfamilies (Table 1). The richness of species ranged from 13 to 25 across habitats (19.125 ± 2.646 (S.D)). There was a significant difference between the habitat types on total species richness (F = 4.130, P = 0.005). Agricultural land with 13 species and dry land with 14 species had fewer species than natural forest (25 species), Be’sat garden (22 species), Janat garden (23 species) and Babakoohi (17 species) (Table 1). Although the estimation of total species, Jackknife 1 (33.5 ± 2.646), Jackknife 2 (35.21), and Bootstrap (31.87) were all greater than the observed species (30), Chao1 and Chao2 (30.01) were identical to our total observed species (Table 3).

Table 1

Ant species abundance in different habitats.
subfamiliy	genus	species	Bk.	Bs.	Jn	Ng	Dr.	Ag
Formicinae	Camponotus	staryi	0	48	3	12	0	0
		oasium	51	8	8	42	0	0
		gestroi	0	1	0	1	0	0
	Cataglyphis	nodus	124	48	88	25	62	95
		livida	45	10	15	11	3	0
		asiriensis	0	0	0	1	0	0
		stigmatus	0	0	0	8	0	0
	Nylanderia	jaegerskioeldi	1	0	13	5	0	4
	Lepisiota	dolabellae	112	85	139	8	55	0
		bipartita	76	110	253	20	96	0
		semenovi	0	43	0	20	0	0
		frauenfeldi	0	0	0	2	0	0
		karawaiewi	61	0	23	12	10	27
	Plagiolepis	pallescens sensu	5	11	27	0	0	0
	Plagiolepis	taurica	0	4	8	0	0	0
Myrmicinae	Crematogaster	subdentata	75	271	304	59	4	47
	Crematogaster	sorokini	0	13	0	67	0	0
	Monomorium	abeillei	258	118	211	66	84	129
	Tetramorium	caespitum	0	61	94	31	2	23
	Tetramorium	indocile	0	40	40	0	0	0
	Cardiocondyla	israelica	0	1	14	0	0	0
	Cardiocondyla	mauritanica	9	13	74	7	0	7
	Messor	wasmanni	36	104	155	129	183	302
		caducus caducus	3	0	16	22	0	7
		clivorum	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Pheidole	indica	71	121	52	9	15	2
	Pheidole	koshewnikovi	80	100	82	21	19	7
Dolichoderinae	Tapinoma	erraticum	55	52	92	86	2	30
Dolichoderinae	Tapinoma	simrothi	340	367	577	235	131	304
Ng. Natural garden, Bk. Babahuhi garden, Bs. Besat garden, Jn. Janat garden, Dr. Dry land, Ag. Agricultural land.

The study of biodiversity at different times showed that in different months of the year, the diversity of ants fluctuated and had a significant difference (F = 4.897, P = 0.001) so that the lowest rate of Shannon diversity index (0.79) and then the value of 1.02 was seen in January in the farm and Janat garden respectively and the highest was recorded on May (2.37) and August (2.36) in Janat garden and then in March (2.343) in natural garden. In general, the highest Shannon diversity index of all samples was in the natural garden (2.577 ± 0.163) followed by Janat and Be’sat gardens (2.568 ± 0.135 and 2.479 ± 0.344) respectively and the lowest (1.803 ± 0.1416) and (1.984 ± 0.0891) were recorded in farm and dry land, respectively (Table 2). However, the highest Simpson index (9.51 ± 1.329 and 8.81 ± 1.449) was seen in Janat garden and the natural garden, and the highest Margalef index (3.513 ± 0.406 and 2.964 ± 0.332) was seen in the natural garden and Be’sat garden, respectively (Table 2). The lowest Simpson index (4.558 ± 0.642) and Margalef (1.85 ± 0.189) were seen in the farm and dry land respectively (Table 2). Although a significant difference was observed with different habitats (F = 4.255, P = 0.004) and different months (F = 6.935, P = 0.012) of sampling (Table 5), no significant difference was found between Babakoohi, Natural garden, Janat and Be’sat gardens ((P > 0.05)) nor between the field and dry land (P > 0.05) (Table6).

Table 2

Ant diversity indices from different habitats
Habitat types	Species Number	Shannon Index	Margalef D index	Simpson	Evenness
Ng.	25	2.577 ± 0.163	3.513	8.813 ± 1.449	0.76
Bk.	17	2.356	2.209	8.039 ± 1.152	0.69
Bs.	23	2.568 ± 0.135	2.964	9.508 ± 1.329	0.76
Jn.	22	2.479 ± 0.034	2.715	8.457 ± 0.383	0.73
Dr.	13	1.984	1.847	6.016 ± 0.994	0.58
Ag.	14	1.803	1.886	4.558 ± 0.642	0.53
Ng. Natural garden, Bk. Babahuhi garden, Bs. Besat garden, Jn. Janat garden, Dr. Dry land, Ag. Agricultural land.

Table 3

Estimation of total ant species richness in all habitats
	Number of species	Standard Deviation
Observed species	30
Jackknife1	33.5	2.646
Jackknife2	35.21	2.646
Chao & Lee1	30.1	1.58
Chao & Lee2	30.01
Bootstrap	31.62

Table 4

Jaccard similarity index between different habitats
Habitat	Ng.	Dr.	Jn.	Bs.	Ag.	Bk.
Ng.	1	0.52	0.62	0.655	0.52	0.615
Dr.	0.52	1	0.591	0.48	0.588	0.667
Jn.	0.62	0.591	1	0.731	0.565	0.773
Bs.	0.655	0.48	0.731	1	0.538	0.538
Ag.	0.52	0.588	0.565	0.538	1	0.632
Bk.	0.615	0.667	0.773	0.538	0.632	1
Ng. Natural garden, Bk. Babahuhi garden, Bs. Besat garden, Jn. Janat garden, Dr. Dry land, Ag. Agricultural land.

Table 5

Oneway ANOVA of diversity index by region.
Regions		simpson LSD		Shannon LSD
(I) region	(J) region	Mean Difference (I-J)	Sig.	Mean Difference (I-J)	Sig.
Bk.	Ng.	-0.67943	0.485	-0.20886		0.297
	Dr.	1.67300	0.091	0.35343		0.082
	Ag.	2.11600^*	0.034	0.45493*		0.027
	Jn.	-1.46714	0.136	-0.33029		0.103
	Bs.	-0.44929	0.643	-0.08643		0.664
Ng.	Dr.	2.35243^*	0.020	0.56229*		0.007
	Ag.	2.79543^*	0.006	0.66379*		0.002
	Jn.	-0.78771	0.418	-0.12143		0.542
	Bs.	0.23014	0.812	0.12243		0.539
Dr.	Ag.	0.44300	0.648	0.10150		0.610
	Jn.	-3.14014^*	0.002	-0.68371*		0.001
	Bs.	-2.12229^*	0.034	-0.43986*		0.032
Ag.	Jn.	-3.58314^*	0.001	-0.78521*		0.000
Ag.	Bs.	-2.56529^*	0.011	-0.54136*		0.009
Jn.	Bs.	1.01786	0.297	-0.24386		0.225
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.

Table 6

ANOVA in different regions and different months with index of diversity.
Predictors	Model		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
	1	Regression	1.229	1	1.229	6.935	0.012
Month		Residual	7.090	40	0.177
		Total	8.319	41
	1	Regression	3.405	5	0.661	4.990	0.001
Regeon		Residual	4.271	36	0.136
		Total	8.319	41

The highest equitability of the ant species was seen in late winter (0.69, 0.68, 0.67 in the natural garden, Babakoohi and Be’sat garden, respectively) and middle spring (0.70 in Janat garden) and the lowest was seen in mid to late autumn (0.54, 0.42, 0.32 and 0.30 in Janat garden, Natural garden, dryland and Be’sat garden, respectively). However, the highest average index was seen in natural garden and Be’sat garden (0.76 ± 0.05) and the lowest in the farm (0.53 ± 0.041) (Table 2).

The highest Jaccard similarity index (0.773) was seen between Janat garden in city landscape and Babakoohi and then with both Janat and Be’sat gardens (0.731) (Table 4). The similarity index of species between the natural garden and both Be’sat and Janat garden was 0.65 and 0.63, respectively. Despite that, the lowest (0.48) was seen between dry land and Be’sat garden (Table 4). This result showed that the species composition in the city landscape including gardens is more similar than the farm and dry land. The Jaccard similarity index between the dry land and farm was 0.58 which indicated the low similarity of the ant species in those regions.

In the present survey, we reported 30 species of ants from 12 genera representing three subfamilies (Formicinae, Myrmicinae and Dolichoderinae). Although in some researches (Mohseni et al, 2017; Bhoje et al ,2014; Begum et al, 2021) the subfamily Myrmicinea has the largest number of species, in our study, like Ghahari et al (2009), the subfamily Formicinae with 16 species from 5 genera (Camponotus, Cataglyphis, Nylanderia, Lepisiota and Plagiolepis) was the most abundant in all habitats followed by Myrmicinae with 12 species from 6 genera (Crematogaster, Monomorium, Tetramorium, Pheidole, Cardiocondyla and Messor), while subfamily Dolichoderinae is poorly recorded with only two species from one genera (Tapinoma). Ghahari et al. (2009) in their revisions of ants from rice field reported nine species from Formicinae, five species from Myrmecinae, and one from Dolocoderinae.

Torabi et al (2017) in their investigation of Ant in the vicinity of Shiraz reported 19 species belonging to 13 genera of the subfamily Dolichoderinae, Formicinae and Myrmicinae but except two species (Cataglyphis nodus and Lepisiota semenovi) none of them was found in our study. They also collected three species of the genus Messor, 4 species of Camponotus and one species of the genus Tapinoma that did not match the species collected in the present study. The Genus Lepisiota with five species followed by Cataglyphis and Camponotus each with 4 species had the highest number of species among the twelve collected genus in our study. The two species of Dolichoderinae (Tapinoma erraticum and Tapinoma simrothi) and some species such as Messor caducus, Monomorium abeillei, Crematogaster subdentata, Tetramorium caespitum, Pheidole koshewnikovi, Ph. indica and Cardiocondyla mauritanica from Myrmecinae and Lepisiota bipartita and Lepisiota dolabellae, Cataglyphis nodus, Cataglyphis livida, and Nylanderia jaegerskioeldi form Formecinae have been widely distributed in all habitat sampling sites. Interestingly, the species Messor clivorum was unique to the farm; also, singleton species (Lepisiota frauenfeldi ) was collected only in natural garden. The most specious species was Tapinoma simrothi with 1954 individual followed by Monomorium abeillei and Crematogaster subdentata with 866 and 760 individuals, respectively.

Although Mohseni et al (2017) found that the species of Cataglyphis are specific to hot, dry and desert area, in our research, we collected 4 species of this genus in areas with rich vegetation and temperate climates. Moreover, the species Tapinoma simrothi and Lepisiota dolabellae have been reported from regions with different climatic conditions (Mohseni et al, (2017) and in our study, they have been collected from all the sampling sites with a large population.

The Shannon index of diversity showed significant differences (F = 4.035, P = 0.002) in the sampling sites, so the highest diversity index was seen in Be’sat garden (2.568) and Natural garden (2.577) and the lowest in the farm (1.8) and destroyed garden (1.98). However, the diversity index in the destroyed garden and farm did not differ significantly (P = 0.648 for Simpson and 0.610 for Shannon index). These results are confirmed by the results of Sanford et al. (2008), Begum et al, (2021), and Uno et al (2010) who showed no significant difference between the habitat types on total species richness.

In our study, the diversity indices of farm and dry land were not significantly different, but the low level of similarity index (0.58) showed that the species composition in these two regions is different and each region has its species.

The highest indices of diversity in different times of sampling were seen in late winter and spring and the lowest in late autumn and early winter. The high diversity may be due to warmer weather in late winter and mild weather in spring and the low diversity may be due to the cold weather in winter. In general, biodiversity assessment in different regions showed that in the areas with the permanent and good vegetation which had the least amount of manipulation and degradation, the species diversity of ants is high and there was no significant difference between them. However, in some areas, like the destroyed garden and farm, the diversity indices were low with a significant difference from other areas.

Despite the scattered studies in the region (Torabi et al 2017; Esfandiari et al, 2020; Kiyani et al. 2021) most of the species (more than 25 from 30 species) that have been collected in our study were new to the Shiraz vicinity. These results showed that the ant species in Iran is very rich and diverse and more studies need to be done to collect and identify more new species.

Our results showed that the ant community composition changes in response to urban development and that urbanization has dual effects on ant biodiversity. On the one hand, there was a decrease in ant biodiversity in dry land and the farm and on the other hand, an increase was seen in the more sustainable city gardens. We also found the highest ant species richness in the gardens and the lowest in the farm and dry land both of which had more disturbances associated with urbanization.

In general, ants have less species diversity in urban areas with more manipulation and degradation, such as agricultural land and dry land, and conversely have higher diversity in areas with more stability and less degradation, such as old city gardens.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Professor Lech Broweick for identification of ant's species. This study was funded by the Agricultural Science and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Iran,

Declarations:

Funding: This study was funded by the Agricultural Science and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Ahvaz, Iran, 1/411/501

Financial interests: The authors have no relevant financial interests to disclose.

Conflict of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Author Contributions Statement

Sepideh Farajollahzade & Shima Mohammadi collected the specimens and prepared the initial identification. Leila Ramezani analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Dada availability: The authors state that the data of this article will be made available whenever needed

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Assessment of Ant's Biodiversity in human land use habitats using the SDR software

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Abstract

Introduction

Materials And Methods

E =\(\frac{Hˊ}{lnS}\)

J =\(\frac{a}{a+b+c}\)

Results

Conclusion

Discussion

Declarations

References

Additional Declarations

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