Alan N. Andersen
YOU?
Author Swipe
Vertical Stratification Increases the Capacity of Morphological Traits to Predict Trophic Position in Neotropical Ants Open
Morphology is a key functional trait that influences the ecophysiology of organisms. The use of morphological traits for understanding functional ecology is common in studies of ants, especially relating to their feeding biology. However, …
Suppression of Australian savanna ants shows “the little rulers” do not rule over spider or beetle assemblages Open
Ants are often referred to as “the little things that rule the world” because of the critical roles they play as ecosystem engineers and through trophic and non‐trophic interactions. We describe an experimental test of the influence of ant…
Tropical Biome Switching: Ant Communities Transition From Savanna to Rainforest Following Cessation of Burning Open
Savannas and rainforests co‐occur as mosaics across large areas of the tropics. These mosaics are dynamic, with savanna and rainforest switching in relatively short time scales, largely through the effects of fire. Most research to date ad…
Unrecognized Ant Megadiversity in the Australian Monsoonal Tropics: The <i>Melophorus castaneus</i> Heterick, Castalanelli & Shattuck Species Group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Open
This paper continues the documentation of remarkable levels of undescribed ant diversity in the Australian monsoonal (seasonal) tropics. It considers the Melophorus castaneus Heterick, Castalanelli & Shattuck species group, as considered h…
View article: The economic strategies of superorganisms
The economic strategies of superorganisms Open
Economic principles can be applied to biological life to understand how resource allocation strategies maximise evolutionary fitness. This approach has been applied in plants under the global slow-fast leaf economic spectrum which describe…
Faunal Responses to Habitat Disturbance: Do the Principles Explaining Responses of Ant Communities Also Apply to Terrestrial Reptiles? Open
Disturbance is fundamental to the state and dynamics of biological communities, and understanding biotic responses to disturbance is critical to effective biodiversity conservation. However, a predictive understanding of how faunal communi…
Unrecognised ant megadiversity in the Australian monsoonal tropics: The <i>Melophorus dicyrtos</i> Heterick, Castalanelli and Shattuck complex Open
It is becoming increasingly clear that the Australian monsoonal (seasonal) tropics is a global centre of ant diversity despite only a small proportion of species being described. Several monsoonal ‘species’ have recently been shown to be s…
Large-scale pyrodiversity is not needed to beget ant diversity in an Australian tropical savanna Open
The hypothesis that pyrodiversity begets biodiversity is foundational to conservation management in fire-prone ecosystems and has received extensive research attention. However, empirical evidence for the hypothesis remains ambivalent. Mor…
View article: The economic strategies of superorganisms
The economic strategies of superorganisms Open
The leaf economics spectrum links strategies of plant investment in resource-acquiring leaves to overall fitness. We test whether an economic spectrum can also explain variation in ecological strategies of ant species across environmental …
Thermal Tolerance and Species Distributions: Interactions Between Latitude, Elevation and Arboreality in Ants Open
Aim Global warming has highlighted the importance of understanding the role of thermal tolerance as a driver of species distributions, especially for ectotherms. Here we analyse interactions between latitude, elevation and arboreality as p…
View article: Global ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) biodiversity and biogeography – a new database and its possibilities
Global ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) biodiversity and biogeography – a new database and its possibilities Open
Despite several centuries of research, the global patterns of species diversity, individual abundance and community composition and their drivers and subtleties remain poorly resolved. We have developed a global database for the di-versity…
The impacts of fire vary among vertical strata: Responses of ant communities to long‐term experimental burning Open
Fire is a powerful tool for conservation management at a landscape scale, but a rigorous evidence base is often lacking for understanding its impacts on biodiversity in different biomes. Fire‐induced changes to habitat openness have been i…
The intact and the imperilled: contrasting mammal population trajectories between two large adjacent islands Open
Context Native mammals continue to suffer widespread and severe declines across northern Australia’s tropical savannas. There is an increasing body of evidence that the primary driver of these declines is predation by feral cats (Felis cat…
Fire and ant interactions mediated by honeydew and extrafloral nectar in an Australian tropical savanna Open
Fire is a major disturbance affecting ecosystems globally, but its impact on mutualisms has received minimal attention. Here, we use a long-term field experiment to investigate the impact of different fire regimes on globally important ant…
Macroecological patterns of functional and phylogenetic diversity vary between ground and arboreal assemblages in Neotropical savanna ants Open
Macroscale environmental gradients can have contrasting effects on organisms that occupy different vertical niches, but we have little understanding of how this might result in different macroscale diversity patterns in ground and arboreal…
Ants of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in arid Australia: Diversity, faunistic composition and habitat associations Open
Inland Australia supports by far the world's most diverse arid-adapted ant fauna, but there are no published studies of regional ant faunas from the central arid zone. Here we describe the ants collected by pitfall trapping at 22 sites in …
Unrecognised Ant Megadiversity in the Australian Monsoonal Tropics III: The Meranoplus ajax Forel Complex Open
Australia’s monsoonal (seasonal) tropics are a global centre of ant diversity, but are largely unrecognised as such because the vast majority of its species are undescribed. Here we document another case of undescribed hyper-diversity with…
Historical biogeography shapes contemporary ecology: inter-continental contrasts in the community ecology and macroecology of savanna ants Open
Biogeographic history is an under-appreciated factor influencing the ecology of biological communities and their macroecological patterns. We show how contrasting biogeographic histories of tropical savannas in Australia, Brazil and Africa…
Rates of species turnover across elevation vary with vertical stratum in rainforest ant assemblages Open
Climatic variation at local scales can influence both exposure and sensitivity of organisms and thereby scale up to influence population persistence and community composition across broader geographic extents. Tropical forest canopies are …
Fire regime shapes butterfly communities through changes in nectar resources in an Australian tropical savanna Open
Fire‐dependent savanna provides key habitat for butterflies globally, but we know little about how fire regimes, including fire frequency and season, affect them. These impacts are likely to be primarily indirect, through changes in overal…
Effect of Long-Term Burning and Mowing Regimes on Ant Communities in a Mesic Grassland Open
Ecological disturbance is fundamental for grassland management and the maintenance of its biodiversity. Fire and grazing are the primary habitat disturbances influencing the structure and composition of grassland ecosystems, both acting to…
Fire Positively Influences Ant Diversity by Modifying Habitat Openness in an Australian Tropical Savanna Open
Photo 1. Experimental fire with high fire intensity. Photo credit: François Brassard. Photo 2. Nest of furnace ants (Melophorus sp. 1 rufoniger gp.) following experimental fire. Photo credit: François Brassard. Photo 3. Close-up on same fu…
Unrecognised Ant Megadiversity in the Australian Monsoonal Tropics: The Melophorus hirsutipes Heterick, Castelanelli & Shattuck Species Group Open
Melophorus hirsutipes Heterick, Castanelli & Shattuck is a recently described taxon that was presented as occurring throughout most of mainland Australia and showing highly variable morphology. One highly variable character is sculpture, w…
Fire influences ant diversity by modifying vegetation structure in an <span>A</span>ustralian tropical savanna Open
Fire is a dominant ecological force shaping many faunal communities globally. Fire affects fauna either directly, such as by killing individuals, or indirectly, such as by modifying vegetation structure. Vegetation structure itself also mo…
Ant diversity in relation to time since fire in a mallee landscape of South‐Eastern Australia Open
Fire is a dominant process shaping the Australian landscape and in many regions the frequency and severity of wildfires are predicted to increase under climate change. The primary impact of fire on fauna is typically indirect through habit…
Unrecognised Ant Megadiversity in Monsoonal Australia: The Tetramorium spininode Bolton Group in the Northern Territory Open
We document unrecognised diversity within the Tetramorium spininode Bolton group of the Australian monsoonal tropics, which has a single described species. At the time of its description, T. spininode was known from just two collections, b…
Vertical stratification of ant assemblages varies along a latitudinal gradient in Brazilian savanna Open
Data from: Vertical stratification of ant assemblages varies along a latitudinal gradient in Brazilian savanna
Patterns of European Ant Communities Reveal a Functionally Coherent Holarctic Fauna Open
Here we examine the extent to which European patterns of ant diversity and functional composition conform with those documented in North America. Following protocols previously used in North America, ant species distribution and behavioura…