干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth

Arid

DOI	10.1073/pnas.2201550119
	The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth
	Schultheiss, Patrick; Nooten, Sabine S.; Wang, Runxi; Wong, Mark K. L.; Brassard, Francois; Guenard, Benoit
通讯作者	Schultheiss, P
来源期刊	PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ISSN	0027-8424
EISSN	1091-6490
出版年	2022
卷号	119 期号:40
英文摘要	Knowledge on the distribution and abundance of organisms is fundamental to understanding their roles within ecosystems and their ecological importance for other taxa. Such knowledge is currently lacking for insects, which have long been regarded as the little things that run the world. Even for ubiquitous insects, such as ants, which are of tremendous ecological significance, there is currently neither a reliable estimate of their total number on Earth nor of their abundance in particular biomes or habitats. We compile data on ground-dwelling and arboreal ants to obtain an empirical estimate of global ant abundance. Our analysis is based on 489 studies, spanning all continents, major biomes, and habitats. We conservatively estimate total abundance of ground-dwelling ants at over 3 x 10(15) and estimate the number of all ants on Earth to be almost 20 x 10(15) individuals. The latter corresponds to a biomass of similar to 12 megatons of dry carbon. This exceeds the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals and is equivalent to similar to 20% of human biomass. Abundances of ground-dwelling ants are strongly concentrated in tropical and subtropical regions but vary substantially across habitats. The density of leaf-litter ants is highest in forests, while the numbers of actively ground-foraging ants are highest in arid regions. This study highlights the central role ants play in terrestrial ecosystems but also major ecological and geographic gaps in our current knowledge. Our results provide a crucial baseline for exploring environmental drivers of ant-abundance patterns and for tracking the responses of insects to environmental change.
英文关键词	Formicidae density diversity insect worldwide
类型	Article
语种	英语
开放获取类型	hybrid, Green Published
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000976314900005
WOS关键词	HYMENOPTERA-FORMICIDAE ; AUSTRALIAN MAMMALS ; ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ; SUBTERRANEAN ANTS ; RAIN-FOREST ; BIODIVERSITY ; TERRESTRIAL ; DIVERSITY ; PATTERNS ; CLIMATE
WOS类目	Multidisciplinary Sciences
WOS研究方向	Science & Technology - Other Topics
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/394073
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Schultheiss, Patrick,Nooten, Sabine S.,Wang, Runxi,et al. The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth[J],2022,119(40).
APA	Schultheiss, Patrick,Nooten, Sabine S.,Wang, Runxi,Wong, Mark K. L.,Brassard, Francois,&Guenard, Benoit.(2022).The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth.PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,119(40).
MLA	Schultheiss, Patrick,et al."The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth".PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 119.40(2022).