US-South Africa Cooperative Research: Ant Diversity and Conservation Assessment

California Academy Of Sciences, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

9986272 This award supports a three-year collaborative research project between Dr. Brian Fisher, of the Department of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, and Drs. Hamish Robertson and Simon Van Noort, of the Life Sciences Division at the South African Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. South Africa has many diverse ecoregions, which contain a rich multitude of endemic plant and animal species. Information on overall diversity and patterns of species turnover for most vertebrates and floral groups within the ecoregions are well known, but little data is available on the invertebrates. Ants are one of the most ecologically and numerically dominant families of invertebrates found in almost all terrestrial regions of the world, and they are a key taxon for surveying and interpreting biodiversity. Dr. Fisher will conduct baseline biodiversity surveys of ants in nature conservation areas located in four of the most biologically diverse ecoregions in South Africa. A comparison of these data with data on other floral and faunal groups will provide a valuable basis for studying how species composition and diversity changes with physiography, and will also enhance our understanding about intertaxon differences in diversity patterns. The South African collaborator has a related project, supported by the World Bank, to evaluate ant diversity in agricultural zones. Dr. Fisher's study will provide baseline diversity data for a comparison of species turnover patterns between agricultural areas and nature conservation areas for use in evaluating the role that conservation farming practices have in preserving the biodiversity of ants and other invertebrates in the four ecoregions. The results will expand the current knowledge on the diversity and biogeography of ants in South Africa, and establish the regional and global importance of conserving biodiversity on farms. The Division of International Programs and the Division of Environmental Biology are jointly providing funding for this project.