Ants Community Patterns in Native and Invaded Desert Habitats

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

2 Science Department, Faculty of Basic Education, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Adailiya, Kuwait

Abstract

Over the four seasons, a total number of 121,488 individuals representing 43 ant species in 16 genera and 5 subfamilies which belong to the family Formicidae were collected by the pitfall traps. The one-way ANOVA’s showed no significant difference between all groups of sites for the species abundance, the Shannon diversity index H and evenness, while the Simpson species diversity D and richness showed a significant difference. Despite the similarities between the forest and desert habitat in terms of univariate analysis, the multivariate analysis showed a clear differentiation between them. The PCA, cluster analysis and CCA reveal a significant difference in species composition, especially between all the forested sites and the control. The use of exotic tree species for plantation of woody forest in the Serabium region significantly does alter assemblage patterns, species richness and diversity of ants native to this habitat

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