干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): Ant foraging strategies vary along a natural resource gradient

Arid

DOI	10.1111/oik.07688
	Ant foraging strategies vary along a natural resource gradient
	Segev, Udi; Tielboerger, Katja; Lubin, Yael; Kigel, Jaime
通讯作者	Segev, U
来源期刊	OIKOS
ISSN	0030-1299
EISSN	1600-0706
英文摘要	Food selection by foragers is sensitive to the availability of resources, which may vary along geographical gradients. Hence, selectivity of food types by foragers is expected to track these resource gradients. Here we addressed this hypothesis and asked if foraging decisions of seed-eating ants differ along a geographic gradient of habitat productivity. The study was carried out for two years at five sites along a natural climatic gradient, ranging from arid to Mediterranean, where plant productivity varies six-fold across a short geographic distance of 250 km. We found that in ant colonies of the genusMessor, collective foraging decisions differed along the gradient. Specifically, at the high-productivity sites, a stronger association was found between plant seed availability and selectivity, suggesting that colonies respond more accurately to within-patch variation in food amounts. In contrast, colonies in low-productivity sites foraged in patches with higher concentration of seeds, suggesting that they respond more accurately to among-patch variation in food amounts. Moreover, at the high-productivity sites, colonies were more discriminating in their choice of food and preferred bigger seeds, while in the low-productivity sites, where smaller seeds were relatively more abundant, food collection depended mostly on seed availability. An experiment with artificial seed patches performed along the same climatic gradient, revealed no difference in food selectivity across sites when food type and availability were similar, and a general preference for bigger over medium-sized seeds. Overall, our findings suggest that resource availability is an important factor explaining food choice along a climatic gradient and imply that in low-productivity regions small-seeded species incur high predation pressure, whereas in high-productivity regions, large-seeded species suffer higher predation. This could have important consequences for plant species composition, particularly at the face of climate change, which could dramatically alter the foraging decisions of granivores.
英文关键词	foraging behaviour geographic gradient granivory propagule length propagule mass resource availability
类型	Article ; Early Access
语种	英语
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000575021600001
WOS关键词	GALAPAGOS GROUND FINCHES ; CENTRAL MONTE DESERT ; HARVESTER ANTS ; SEED SIZE ; WORKER SIZE ; MEDITERRANEAN GRASSLAND ; COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION ; SPATIAL-PATTERNS ; MESSOR-EBENINUS ; OPTIMAL DIET
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
来源机构	Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ; Hebrew University of Jerusalem
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/328315
作者单位	[Segev, Udi; Kigel, Jaime] Hebrew Univ Jerusalem, Robert H Smith Fac Agr Food & Environm, Inst Plant Sci, Rehovot, Israel; [Tielboerger, Katja] Univ Tubingen, Inst Evolut & Ecol, Tubingen, Germany; [Lubin, Yael] Ben Gurion Univ Negev, Blaustein Inst Desert Res, Mitrani Dept Desert Ecol, Midreshet Ben Gurion, Israel
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Segev, Udi,Tielboerger, Katja,Lubin, Yael,et al. Ant foraging strategies vary along a natural resource gradient[J]. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
APA	Segev, Udi,Tielboerger, Katja,Lubin, Yael,&Kigel, Jaime.
MLA	Segev, Udi,et al."Ant foraging strategies vary along a natural resource gradient".OIKOS