Insights from Field and Laboratory Studies Across Three Species from Shenandoah to Panama
Open Access DepositedBehavioral Responses of Ants to Climate Warming
the plant provides them with food and shelter, while the ants aggressively defend the plant from herbivores and competing vegetation. With an in-situ warming experiment, I studied the activity and defense behavior of the ants and the herbivory experienced by the plant. I found that the ants reduced patrolling and defense of the plant in the heated treatment, and are already experiencing temperatures near their critical thermal maxima. Together, I employed three different methodological approaches
A. rudis, the warm-tolerant low-elevation species, and A. picea, the cold-tolerant high-elevation species. The low-elevation species is expanding its range into higher elevations as they become warmer, displacing A. picea. I studied their activity and foraging efficiency across natural temperature variation along an elevation gradient and found that A. rudis is more active and efficient than A. picea. I then examined their activity, foraging, and reproductive output at sublethal temperatures under controlled lab conditions and found that with a 3°C rise, both species decrease activity, foraging, and reproductive output. The third chapter addresses these questions within a tropical arboreal ant system of the acacia-ant mutualism. Tropical arboreal ants are even more vulnerable because they are exposed to extremely heated surfaces in the canopy and operate at temperatures close to their critical thermal maxima. Pseudomyrmex spinicola ants are mutualists of the plant Vachellia collinsii
natural temperature variation along elevation, temperature manipulation in the lab, and in-situ warming, to study the behavioral response of ants to climate warming. My research demonstrates that ants adjust their behavior in response to small temperature increases, which can aid in predicting changes in the ecosystem services these ants provide.
The impacts of climate change have long been documented from ecosystems to the organismal level in a wide variety of taxa. Large-scale population declines, shifts in community composition, phenological mismatches, and range expansions or contractions have been observed. Temperature also has physiological impacts on individual organisms. However, the first responses of animals to stressful conditions are often behavioral, and studying these behavioral changes can help predict future large-scale ecological patterns. Insects are particularly vulnerable to temperature changes because they are ectotherms. Social insects have both individual and collective behavioral mechanisms of coping with temperature stress. Therefore, it is vital to understand how social insects will respond individually, as well as at the colony level. I studied the behavioral response of ants to climate warming, as they are abundant in diverse habitats and provide vital ecosystem services. Although physiological thermal limits are a valuable tool for predicting future responses, ants can modulate their behavior with slight temperature increases. Therefore, studying the behavioral response to sub-lethal temperature stress is essential.In the first two chapters, I studied the Aphaenogaster ants, which are keystone seed dispersers in the forests of the Eastern United States. They provide an opportunity to study two closely related species
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