Impact of urbanization on the ant diversity: a case study on teak plantation in South Sulawesi, Indonesia Faiz Nashiruddin Muhammad (a), M. Bayu Mario (b*), Hagus Tarno (a), Yogo Setiawan (a), Asri Ainun Amaliah (b), Nur Indah Sari (b), Muhammad Alifuddin Achmad (b), Lekhnath Kafle (c)
a) Department of Plant Pests and Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Brawijaya, Jalan Veteran Malang 65145, Indonesia
b) Department of Plant Pests and Diseases, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Hasanuddin, Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan Km. 10 Makassar 90245, Indonesia
c) Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, 1 Shuefu Road, Neipu, Pingtung 912, Republic of China (Taiwan)
*) bayumario[at]unhas.ac.id
Abstract
Ant communities can play an important role in a teak agroecosystem. However, ant diversity can be affected by urbanization. The purpose of this study was to determine the diversity and composition of ants in teak plantations in urban and rural areas. This study was conducted in July 2022 at three plantations in two regencies (Gowa and Maros) and one city (Makassar) in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Gowa and Maros are located in rural areas while Makassar is located in urban areas. Ants were sampled using a pitfall canopy. At each plantation, 20 trees were sampled randomly for pitfall installation. Ants were identified to the genera level and morphospecies. Ant^s diversity was analyzed using the Shannon Wiener, Simpson, and Evenness index and analysis of dissimilarity (Anosim). Total 273 individual ants samples were collected from 10 species and four subfamilies from three teak plantations in South Sulawesi. Crematogaster sp.1 was the most abundant ant among all the collected samples. Based upon the different indexes, the highest ant diversity was found in Gowa followed by Maros, while the lowest diversity was found in Makassar. The level of ant dominance in Makassar was higher than other two studied areas. The highest species evenness index was also found in Gowa and followed by Maros. The species composition in the three teak plantations was also not similar. Each location had their unique species composition than the other locations. This indicated that urbanization causes negative impacts on ants diversity and evenness as well as increase the dominance of ant species in teak plantations.
Keywords: Abundance- Pitfall canopy- Rural area- Similiarity- Urban area
Topic: Biodiversity, soil health and agricultural practices
