Journal of Applied Biosciences (J. Appl. Biosci.) [ISSN 1997 - 5902]
Volume 29: 1809 - 1827. Published May 11, 2010.
Diversity and abundance of terrestrial ants along a gradient of land use intensification in a transitional forest-savannah zone of Côte d’Ivoire
Mouhamadou KONE1 2 *, Souleymane KONATE 2, Kolo YEO 2, Philippe Kouassi KOUASSI 1 and K. E. LINSENMAIR 3
1Unité de Formation et de Recherches en Biosciences, Université de Cocody, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire ; 2Station d’écologie de Lamto, Université d’Abobo-Adjamé, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire ; 3Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Germany;
*Corresponding author address: kmouhamadou2@yahoo.fr
ABSTRACT
Objective: In the transitional forest-savannah zone, human pressure on natural resources occurs mainly through converting forests into diverse land use systems. Land use management has an important impact on soil and its functional role in maintaining ecosystem processes; it generally results in dramatic and rapid changes in vegetation that are likely to affect soil invertebrate communities significantly. In the context of the sustainable use of natural resources in tropical countries an investigation was conducted in Cote d’Ivoire to study the impacts of land use type on biodiversity.
Methodology and results: Data were collected on ant diversity and relative abundance in five land use types: (i) forest in Lamto reserve, (ii) rural forest, (iii) food crop plantations, (iv) cocoa and (v) pineapple plantations, with the aim of characterizing ant assemblage in response to land use change. Standard sampling methods (Winkler leaf litter extraction, pitfall trapping and soil monolith extraction) were used to collect ants along three transects of 200 m length per land use type. A total of one hundred and eighteen ant species were found in all habitats combined. The rural forest was the most species rich habitat (75 species), followed in decreasing order by the Lamto forest (73 species), food crop plantations (61 species), cocoa plantations (45 species) and pineapple plantations (19 species).
Conclusions and application of findings: Three main conclusions were drawn from this study: (i) a decrease in terrestrial ant diversity occurred with increasing land use intensification; (ii) food crop lands had levels of ant diversity comparable to those of the forests; however, there were dramatic changes in the community structure; (iii) the rural forests are near natural and may serve as refuges for ant diversity. These findings encourage sustainable types of land use, involving agro-forestry practices to allow natural recovery processes after agricultural disturbance. This approach will help in the conservation of biodiversity.
Key words: Ants, forest, human pressure, land use intensification, refuge.
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