Unravelling the functional importance of ants across contrasting African savannas

Background
In tropical systems, ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are the dominant animal group accounting for up to 70% of all individuals. Ants perform a variety of functions and interact with above and belowground communities, yet few studies have quantified their functional importance at large-scales.
Recent research from the FunkyAnt lab (www.funkyant.weebly.com) has used novel suppression techniques in Borneo and South Africa to reveal that ants can influence the abundance of other invertebrate groups and affect ecosystem processes like decomposition. Yet, in African savannas, we do not know the full extent of how ants structure these ecosystems, some of the most vulnerable systems to climate change and habitat degradation. This project will explore the functional importance of savanna ants across contrasting sites in South Africa by using ant suppression experiments in high and low rainfall areas. The project will test whether ants are relatively more important in drier areas due to the important functions they perform.

Objectives
Using a manipulation experiment with large ant-suppression and control plots in arid and mesic savannas, the student will:
1. Determine how ants influence ground-active, soil dwelling and arboreal invertebrates
2. Document the effects of ants on ecosystem processes, including soil bioturbation and infiltration, nutrient cycling and soil respiration
3. Explore how the suppression of ants influences vertebrates, including small mammals and myrmecophages (ant-eaters)

This studentship involving fieldwork, ecosystem measurements, and taxonomic identifications, will address the current lack of information on the structuring of African savanna communities by making use of suppression techniques developed from previous work by our team. The study will offer new insights by comparing responses in dry and mesic savannas.

CASE support is offered by Dr Paul Eggleton at the Natural History Museum in London who will provide additional project support on soil ecology and invertebrates. The student will work closely with a team in South Africa (lead by Prof. Mark Robertson, University of Pretoria) who are performing an ecosystem-scale manipulation experiment. The suppression experiment commences in October 2016 and is funded by a Royal Society-DFID award to Parr & Robertson. This Royal Society project provides enhanced logistical support, and will allow the student to benefit from the expertise and insights of other team members who will examine different aspects of the ecosystem, while also enabling the student to link to a wider network of collaborators across Africa. For example, we will use new DNA techniques pioneered by a team from the Czech Republic to assess ant diets.