A Thesis Entitled the Short-Term Impacts of Burning and Mowing on Prairie Ant Communities of the Oak Openings Region by Russell
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A Thesis entitled The Short-term Impacts of Burning and Mowing on Prairie Ant Communities of the Oak Openings Region by Russell L. Friedrich Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biology (Ecology track) ________________________________________________ Dr. Stacy Philpott, Committee Chair ________________________________________________ Dr. Jonathan Bossenbroek, Committee Member ________________________________________________ Dr. Daniel Pavuk, Committee Member ________________________________________________ Dr. Patricia Komuniecki, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo May 2010 Copyright 2010, Russell L. Friedrich This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of The Short-term Impacts of Land Management Techniques on Prairie Ant Communities by Russell L. Friedrich Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biology (Ecology track) The University of Toledo May 2010 Controlled burning and mowing are among the most common forms of disturbance in prairie grasslands. Extensive studies on vegetative responses to fire, grazing, and mowing have been investigated, however, there is a lack of information on how animals and particularly insects are affected by these disturbances. Ants in particular play vital ecological roles in nutrient cycling, soil structure and turnover, predation, and seed dispersal, but few studies have assessed ant response to land management practices in prairie ecosystems. This research will assess the short-term impacts of controlled burning and mowing on ant communities. Ants were sampled in 17 prairie sites, divided into three treatments (burn, control, mow) within the Oak Openings Region in Ohio. All burn and mow sites were managed in November 2008 or April 2009 and sampled five times (once per month) with tuna baits between April 2009 and August 2009. Ant abundance, activity and richness were recorded and compared between months and among treatments. A total of 32 species were recorded, including two state records (Dorymyrmex insanus and Formica gynocrates). Control and burned plots had the greatest number of species (25 species each) while the mowed plots had 17 species. Ant activity levels and mean number of occurrences on baits did not differ depending on iii management type or within each management type by month, but did differ between the months of sampling period. Species similarity differed for all three management types, and differed in early and late summer. Thus, land management affects ant communities in terms of species similarity and richness, but not for abundance or activity of ants. This means in the short-term, burning and mowing have little impact on ant communities overall; however, differences in species composition may have important implications for prairie systems. iv Dedicated to my parents, Terry and Mary Lou Friedrich, and to my sisters Meryl and Isabel for always supporting me. v Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the support and aid (financially and emotionally) of my family and close friends. I would also like to thank Peter Bichier, David Gonthier, Leigh Moorhead, Cody Murnen, Gabriella Pardee, Lindsey Pierce, and Jon Richardson for help in the field, Melanie Coulter for information regarding the management history and Kal Ivanov at Cleveland State University for identification help. I thank my committee members, Dr. Jonathan Bossenbroek and Dr. Daniel Pavuk, for guidance and input on my thesis and especially my advisor Dr. Stacy Philpott who has invested countless hours into me over the past few years and has been the greatest mentor I could have asked for. I would also like to acknowledge Gary Haase and Kitty Todd Nature Preserve (The Nature Conservatory) and Oak Openings Metroparks (especially Karen Menard and Tim Gallaher). Thanks to The University of Toledo Department of Environmental Sciences and the Toledo Naturalist Association for funding. vi Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………..iii Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………….vi Contents …………………………………………………………………………………vii List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………..…...ix List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………....…x 1 Chapter 1: The Short-term Impacts of Land Management Techniques on Prairie Ant Communities in the Oak Openings Region 1.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...1 1.2 Objectives ……………………………………………………………………….5 1.3 Materials and Methods …………………………………………………………..6 1.3.1 Study sites ………………………………………………………………..6 1.3.2 Ant sampling ……………………………………………………………..8 1.3.3 Site characteristics………………………………………………………..9 1.3.4 Analysis…………………………………………………………………..9 1.4 Results ………………………………………………………………………….11 1.4.1 Ant sampling results…………………………………………………….11 1.4.2 Site characteristics and environmental correlates of ant communities …15 1.5 Discussion ……………………………………………………………………...16 vii 1.5.1 General characteristics of the Oak Openings ant community…………...16 1.5.2 Effects of prairie management on ant communities ……………………18 1.6 References ……………………………………………………………….……..38 2 Chapter 2: Formica gynocrates (Snelling and Buren) and Dorymyrmex insanus (Buckley) encountered as new ants for Ohio 2.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………….……43 2.2 Methods ……………………………………………………….……………..…44 2.3 Recognition………………………………………………………………..……46 2.3.1 Recognition of D. insanus ………………………………………………..46 2.3.2 Recognition of F. gynocrates …………………………………………….47 2.4 Discussion ……………………………………………………………………...47 2.5 References ……………………………………………………………………...51 viii List of Tables 1-1 Study locations and management description for 17 study sites. ………………...…24 1-2 Land management history of prairie study sites in the Oak Openings region of NW Ohio. ………………………………………………………………………….….…..25 1-3 List of ant species found in the prairies of the Oak Openings region in Northwest Ohio. …………………………………………………………………………………26 1-4 Mean (± standard error) for environmental variables measured in managed (burn and mow) and control prairies in the Oak Openings region of NW Ohio ……………….27 ix List of Figures 1-1 Species accumulation curves for observed ant richness in praries under three management regimes per the total number of occurrences of all ant species. Error bars show 95% confidence intervals.……………… ……………………………….……28 1-2 Rank abundance of all ant species present in prairies with different land management practices. The number of occurrences for each species shows the number of baits occupied by each species in each habitat type. Species are organized by total abundance in control sites ………………………………………………………...…29 1-3 Mean ant abudance across five months in prarie sites with different management. Ant abundace is measured by colony occurreces on baits by month. ……………………30 1-4 Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) of ant species similarity for each sampling month across all management types. April = red crosses, May = green x’s, June = blue squares, July = grey triangles, August = black dots. Ellipses represent 95% CI for each month, and each color corresponds to the month with the same color………………………………………………………………………………….31 x 1-5 NMDS plot showing ant species similiarity between the three management types. Each point represents one plot, and the colors are as follows: burn = red crosses, control = blue squares, mow = green x’s. Ellipses represent 95% CI for each month, and each color corresponds to the month with the same color.……...……..………..32 1-6 Canonical Correspondence Analysis biplot comparing ant species composition, relative abundace of 24 ant species, 8 environmental factors in 17 sites differing in prairie management during the month of April. The lines represent the environmental variables, codes represent the sites, and numbers represent the and species. Corresponding species numbers located in Table 1-3 and site codes in Table 1-1…33 1-7 Canonical Correspondence Analysis biplot comparing ant species composition, relative abundace of 22 ant species, 8 environmental factors in 17 sites differing in prairie management during the month of May. The lines represent the environmental variables, codes represent the sites, and numbers represent the and species. Corresponding species numbers located in Table 1-3 and site codes in Table 1-1….34 1-8 Canonical Correspondence Analysis biplot comparing ant species composition, relative abundace of 23 ant species, 8 environmental factors in 17 sites differing in prairie management during the month of June. The lines represent the environmental variables, codes represent the sites, and numbers represent the and species. Corresponding species numbers located in Table 1-3 and site codes in Table 1-1…35 xi 1-9 Canonical Correspondence Analysis biplot comparing ant species composition, relative abundace of 23 ant species, 7 environmental factors in 17 sites differing in prairie management during the month of July. The lines represent the environmental variables, codes represent the sites, and numbers represent the and species. Corresponding species numbers located in Table 1-3 and site codes in Table 1-1….36 1-10 Canonical Correspondence Analysis biplot comparing ant species composition, relative abundace of 26 ant species, 7 environmental factors in 17 sites differing in prairie management during the month of August. The lines represent the environmental variables, codes represent the sites, and numbers