NDLI: Quantification of Ant Manure Deposition in a Tropical Agroecosystem: Implications for Host Plant Nitrogen Acquisition

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Pinkalski, Christian Damgaard, Christian Jensen, Karl Martin V. Peng, Renkang Offenberg, Joachim
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Ants are functionally important organisms in most terrestrial ecosystems. Being ubiquitous and abundant, ant communities can affect the availability of resources to both primary and secondary consumers. As nitrogen is a limiting nutrient for plant growth in most terrestrial ecosystems, deposition of ant manure may augment the host plants’ acquisition of nitrogen. In this study, we quantified the manure deposited by colonies of the Asian weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina. We developed a method to estimate the amount of manure deposited in host trees (Mangifera indica) based on the trail activity of O. smaragdina. The rate of manure deposition was on average 62.3 kg dw ha−1 y−1, of which 0.2 kg ha−1 y−1 was deposited as urea-N, a nutrient that may be absorbed directly through the leaves, and 1.9 kg ha−1 y−1 was deposited as total nitrogen. Furthermore, ants given access to sucrose solution increased their rate of manure deposition significantly, suggesting that nectaries and/or trophobionts may play a major role in the production of ant manure. This study reveals that O. smaragdina can supply a significant amount of nitrogen to their host plants. In light of their remarkable abundance, the manure deposition by ants may have a hitherto unappreciated impact on the allocation of nutrients within their ecosystem.
Starting Page	1373
Ending Page	1382
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISSN	14329840
Journal	Ecosystems
Volume Number	18
Issue Number	8
e-ISSN	14350629
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2015-08-18
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	ant–plant interactions arthropods food web nitrogen cycling nutritional ecology Oecophylla smaragdina trophobionts Ecology Plant Sciences Zoology Environmental Management Geoecology/Natural Processes Hydrology/Water Resources
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology Environmental Chemistry Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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