uid=HFR,o=lter,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org
all
public
read
doi:10.6073/pasta/363c9a3bb22f2720e8350ee3eb94235f
Ant Diversity and Vegetation Composition in Hemlock Removal Experiment at Harvard Forest 2006
Aaron
Ellison
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4151-6081
Sydne
Record
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7293-2155
Alexander
Arguello
Researcher
2023
English
Ants comprise a considerable amount of animal biomass in terrestrial ecosystems and play major roles in ecological processes ranging from seed dispersal to soil turnover. Invasion by the hemlock woolly adelgid will transform late-successional hemlock forests into earlier successional mixed hardwood-white pine forests or red-maple wetlands. Understanding how ant assemblages vary in different habitat types allows for predictions of how hemlock decline could alter the composition of ant assemblages, with implications for a wide range of ecosystem processes. An ongoing study at the Simes Tract of Harvard Forest is documenting the effects of invasion and land-use history on ant biodiversity. Surveys from 2003 to 2005 focused on ant structure in hemlock and hardwood microhabitats in the Harvard Forest Hemlock Removal Experiment, in which hemlock forest response to deforestation by the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) and to selective logging is being examined (Ellison et al. 2005). In the summer of 2006, we surveyed a greater range of microhabitat types with two objectives. First, to collect rare or elusive species in hemlock and hardwood stands that may have gone uncollected in previous years. Second, to sample forest communities not included in previous years - white pine, swamp, and rocky slope - for ant species unique to these microhabitats. We found fourteen newly documented species of ants in the Simes Tract - nine of which were in an open, swamp. Aphaenogaster rudis and Camponotus pennsylvanicus were the only ant species found in all microhabitat types. In a canonical correspondence analysis, A. rudis and C. pennsylvanicus were associated most strongly with hemlock stands and low species richness of understory plants.
abundance
ants
habitats
hemlock
hemlock woolly adelgid
species composition
LTER controlled vocabulary
populations
disturbance
LTER core area
Harvard Forest
HFR
LTER
USA
HFR default
This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.
Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
https://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0.html
CC0-1.0
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf119
Simes Tract (Harvard Forest). Coordinates based on WGS84 datum.
-72.22
-72.21
+42.48
+42.47
200
240
meter
2006
2006
order
Hymenoptera
genus
Tsuga
species
canadensis
complete
Information Manager
Harvard Forest
324 North Main Street
Petersham
MA
01366
USA
(978) 724-3302
hf-im@lists.fas.harvard.edu
Harvard Forest
324 North Main Street
Petersham
MA
01366
USA
(978) 724-3302
(978) 724-3595
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu
Overview
Within the Simes tract, we sampled 100-m transects at eight sites with the following microhabitats: two sites each of hemlock, white pine, and hardwood overstories; a swamp site; and a rocky-slope. At the swamp site, the transect length was only 50 m due to geographical constraints. At each transect we sampled ants and vegetation. Ants were sampled twice at each site between June and August 2006 from pitfall traps, baits, sieved litter, and hand-collections. Pitfall traps were 95mm-diameter plastic cups buried even with the substrate surface. Traps were filled with 20-mL soapy water and left to accumulate ants for 48 hours during dry weather. Trap contents were collected and fixed in the field in 95% EtOH. Following collection of the pitfall traps, bait stations (50 mg Pecan Sandies cookies) were set up at each sample point. Baits were set out on white index cards during the middle of the day for one hour after which ants were collected with a suction aspirator. Litter-dwelling ants were extracted from three 1-L leaf litter samples per transect. We also searched for and hand-collected ants for 1 person-hour throughout each site, looking under rocks, on low-growing vegetation, and in the leaf litter. All vegetation sampling was performed in mid-July during the height of the growing season. At 5-m intervals along the transect, the number of stems of all herbs and shrubs was recorded within 50 x 50-cm quadrats centered on each pitfall location. In the first week of September 2006, we took hemispherical canopy photos along the transects at 0m, 50m and 100m using a Nikon 8mm fisheye lens and F-3 camera. At the swamp site, we took hemiphotos at 0m, 25m, and 50m since that transect was only 50 m long. We measured the basal area of all trees greater than 5-cm diameter at breast height (DBH) within 5-m of each 100-m transect.
Transect Information
Transect Information (8 transects total of 100 m in length unless otherwise noted). Compass declination set at 15 deg. Transect 1. Hemlock overstory. Transect located in the northwest corner of the Simes Tract running west of and adjacent to a small stream. Transect runs at 354.5 deg. Transect 2. Hemlock overstory. Transect located in the northwest corner of the Simes Tract southeast of Transect 1 and south of wetland. Transect runs at 203.5 deg. Transect 3. Hardwood overstory. Transect located between Hemlock Removal Experiment plots 7 and 6. Transect runs at. Transect 4. White pine and Hemlock Swamp. Transect located in northwest corner of the Simes Tract on the western side of the wetland. Transect runs at 176 deg. Transect is 50 m in length. Transect 5. Hardwood overstory on rocky slope. Transect located northeast of Hemlock Removal Experiment Plot 3 running west of and adjacent to a ravine. Transect runs at 171 deg. Transect 6. Hardwood overstory. Transect parallels a stone wall and is located west of skid road leading to Hemlock Removal Experiment Plots 1, 2, and 3. Transect runs at 86.5 deg. Transect 7. White pine overstory. Transect located in south central portion of the Simes Tract west of a stream and the jeep road that runs perpendicular to the main parking area off of Dugway Rd. Transect is located within a stone wall foundation. Transect runs at 332.5 deg. Transect 8. White pine overstory. There are two transects running parallel to one another and 6 m apart. Transects located in south central portion of the Simes Tract running parallel to Dugway Rd. Transects run at 24.5 deg.
Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research
Harvard Forest
324 North Main Street
Petersham
MA
01366
USA
(978) 724-3302
(978) 724-3595
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu
https://ror.org/059cpzx98
pointOfContact
The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts.
National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.
hf119-01-ants.csv
ants
hf119-01-ants.csv
45293
190cb0ea70135bebd9acf3c334c319a7
1
\r\n
column
,
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p11/hf119/hf119-01-ants.csv
date
date of collection
YYYY-MM-DD
transect
transect number
transect number
distance
location in meters along transect
meter
0.1
real
NA
missing value
trap.no
the number of the trap within the transect. Twenty traps total per transect.
trap number
trap.type
the method of collection
Pitfall
pitfall
1 hour bait
one hour bait
Hand
hand
15 min bait
fifteen minute bait
Litter
litter samples conducted at 30, 60, and 90 meter marks of the transect. Transect 8 had litter samples conducted at 0, 25, and 50 meter marks.
genus
genus of the ant collected
genus
species
species of the ant collected
species
spec.code
species code
species code
no.ants
number of ants collected of that particular species within the trap
number
1
whole
NA
missing value
ref.no
reference number
reference number
caste
the role of the ant collected within the colony
the role of the ant collected within the colony
636
hf119-02-overstory.csv
overstory
hf119-02-overstory.csv
18449
15930a12408ac1e80bd9f61d669ccc74
1
\r\n
column
,
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p11/hf119/hf119-02-overstory.csv
date
date of collection
YYYY-MM-DD
transect
transect number (all trees measured within 5m of transect (2.5 m either side of transect))
transect number
genus
genus of the tree sampled
genus
species
species of the tree sampled
species
spec.code
species code
species code
dbh
diameter at breast height of tree sampled
centimeter
0.1
real
NA
missing value
condition
condition of tree
0
alive
1
dead
coppiced
coppiced
0
tree is not coppiced
1
tree is coppiced
basal.area
basal area
squareCentimeters
0.01
real
NA
missing value
372
hf119-03-understory.csv
understory
hf119-03-understory.csv
24018
aba420588fcb5e99b5bb06f199a6b3fc
1
\r\n
column
,
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p11/hf119/hf119-03-understory.csv
date
date of collection
YYYY-MM-DD
transect
transect number
transect number
distance
location in meters along transect
meter
0.1
real
NA
missing value
trap.no
the number of the trap within the transect that the 50 cm x 50 cm sampling quadrat was centered around. Twenty traps total per transect.
trap number
genus
genus of the plant sampled
genus
species
species of the plant sampled
species
spec.code
species code
species code
no.stems
number of stems sampled of that particular species within the 50 cm x 50 cm quadrat
number
1
whole
NA
missing value
519
hf119-04-canopy-photos.csv
canopy photos
hf119-04-canopy-photos.csv
1292
0d0eb18f886caac1d1460cf4eb435d93
1
\r\n
column
,
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p11/hf119/hf119-04-canopy-photos.csv
transect
transect number (1-8)
transect number
distance
location along transect in meters
meter
1
real
NA
missing value
gsf
estimated proportion of global radiation (direct plus diffuse) under a plant canopy relative to that in the open
number
0.01
real
0
1
NA
missing value
dsf
estimated proportion of direct solar radiation reaching a given location, relative to that in a
location with no sky obstruction
number
0.01
real
0
1
NA
missing value
isf
estimated proportion of diffuse solar radiation reaching a given location, relative to a
location with no sky obstruction
number
0.01
real
0
1
NA
missing value
tot.be
estimated total radiation below the canopy
megajoulePerMeterSquaredPerYear
1
whole
0
NA
missing value
dir.be
estimated direct radiation below the canopy, corrected for interception surface orientation
megajoulePerMeterSquaredPerYear
1
whole
0
NA
missing value
lai
estimated leaf area index for the entire canopy
number
0.01
real
0
NA
missing value
gnd.cover
estimated overall fraction of ground covered by canopy
number
0.01
real
0
1
NA
missing value
lai.dev
estimated uniformity of the canopy across the image
number
0.01
real
0
NA
missing value
threshold
user-specified value used to classify the image into black and white pixels
number
1
whole
0
255
NA
missing value
25
hf119-05-transect.csv
transect information
hf119-05-transect.csv
424
60874315b7c43cd1e06bec4bbc6fba0b
1
\r\n
column
,
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p11/hf119/hf119-05-transect.csv
transect
transect number (1-8)
transect number
length.m
length of the transect in meters (50 or 100)
meter
1
real
NA
missing value
latitude.start
latitude of the starting point of the transect
degree
0.001
real
NA
missing value
longitude.start
longitude of the starting point of the transect
degree
0.001
real
NA
missing value
direction
direction the transect runs (degrees west of north; declination set at 15 degrees)
degree
0.001
real
NA
missing value
vegetation
dominant canopy vegetation
dominant canopy vegetation
NA
missing value
8
plot
community
long-term measurement
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf147
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf118
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf105
https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf106
https://harvardforest.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000Vw5SXpS_gW8/G0000FobrneSlvtM/Along-Ant-Transects
megajoulePerMeterSquaredPerYear