Abstract
We present comprehensive data including 32 ant species and 108,988 individuals, structured across the transition between Subantarctic and Patagonian subregions. This area encompasses one of the most pronounced environmental gradients in the world and represents the presence of local distributional limits for several ant species. Fifty sampling sites were located within an area of 150 km × 150 km, encompassing forests, shrublands, and steppes, and were sampled over 5 periods from November 2004 to March 2006. We included an occurrence matrix of species x sites, including catalogue numbers of the specimens housed in the biological collection of arthropods (BACRU) at the National University of Comahue, Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. We also included the geographic position and environmental characteristics of the sites, and files in geospatial vector data format (“shapefiles”) for the local distribution of each species. We present an evaluation of sampling completeness and evenness. These data contribute to document biodiversity and may be useful for biogeographic analyses, diversity and conservation studies, and taxonomic analyses.
References
- Barros, V., Cordón, V., Moyano, C., Méndez, R., Forquera, J. & Pizzio, O. (1983) Cartas de precipitación de la zona oeste de las provincias de Río Negro y Neuquén. Internal Report. Facultad Ciencias de la Agricultura, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Neuquén. Cinco Saltos, Río Negro: Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Centro Nacional Patagónico-CONICET, 62 pp.
- Chao, A. & Kubota, Y. (2024) The iNEXT. 4steps package: four-step biodiversity analysis based on iNEXT. https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.iNEXT.4steps
- Chao, A., Kubota, Y., Zelený, D., Chiu, C.-H., Li, C.-F., Kusumoto, B., Yasuhara, M., Thorn, S., Wei, C.-L., Costello, M.J. & Colwell, R.K. (2020) Quantifying sample completeness and comparing diversities among assemblages. Ecological Research, 35, 292–314. https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1703.12102
- Crisci, J.V. & Katinas, L. (2017) El fin de las colecciones de historia natural en un tiempo de extinciones. Estudios de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Buenos Aires, 125, 80–96.
- Cuezzo, F. & Larrea, D. (n.d.) BiodAr. Biodiversity of Insects from Argentina y Uruguay. Available from: https://biodar.unlp.edu.ar/ (accessed 1 November 2024)
- Cuezzo, F. & Larrea, D. (2023) Formicidae. In: Claps, L.E., Roig-Juñent, S.A. & Morrone, J.J. (Eds.) Biodiversidad de Artrópodos Argentinos. Vol. 1. Ediciones Sur, La Plata, pp. 452–462.
- Dunn, R.R., Agosti, D., Andersen, A.N., Arnan, X., Bruhl, C.A., Cerdá, X., Ellison, A.M., Fisher, B.L., Fitzpatrick, M.C., Gibb, H., Gotelli, N.J., Gove, A.D., Guenard, B., Janda, M., Kaspari, M., Laurent, E.J., Lessard, J.-P., Longino, J.T., Majer, J.D., Menke, S.B., McGlynn, T.P., Parr, C.L., Philpott, S.M., Pfeiffer, M., Retana, J., Suarez, A.V., Vasconcelos, H.L., Weiser, M.D. & Sanders, N.J. (2009) Climatic drivers of hemispheric asymmetry in global patterns of ant species richness. Ecology Letters, 12, 324–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01291.x
- Economo, E.P., Narula, N., Friedman, N.R., Weiser, M.D. & Guénard, B. (2018) Macroecology and macroevolution of the latitudinal diversity gradient in ants. Nature Communications, 9, 1778. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04218-4
- Elizalde, L., Arbetman, M., Arnan, X., Eggleton, P., Leal, I.R., Lescano, M.N., Saez, A., Werenkraut, V. & Pirk, G.I. (2020) The ecosystem services provided by social insects: Traits, management tools and knowledge gaps. Biological Reviews, 95, 1418–1441. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12616
- Farji Brener, A.G., Pirk, G.I., Lescano, M.N., Elizalde, L., Werenkraut, V., Buteler, M., Alma, A.M., Ortiz, D. & Devegili, A.M. (2022) Act locally, think globally: Ant studies in Argentina in the context of ecological theory. Ecología Austral, 32, 601–619. https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.22.32.2.1.1799
- Fergnani, P.N., Sackmann, P. & Cuezzo, F. (2008) Environmental determinants of the distribution and abundance of the ants, Lasiophanes picinus and L. valdiviensis. Journal of Insect Science, 8, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1673/031.008.3601
- Fergnani, P.N., Sackmann, P. & Ruggiero, A. (2010) Richness-environment relationships in epigaeic ants across the Subantarctic-Patagonian transition zone. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 3, 278–290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-4598.2010.00105.x
- Fergnani, P.N., Sackmann, P. & Ruggiero, A. (2013) The spatial variation in ant species composition and functional groups across the Subantarctic-Patagonian transition zone. Journal of Insect Conservation, 17, 295–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-012-9510-3
- Folgarait, P.J. (1998) Ant biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem functioning: A review. Biodiversity & Conservation, 7, 1221–1244. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008891901953
- Guénard, B., Weiser, M., Gomez, K., Narula, N. & Economo, E.P. (2017) The Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics (GABI) database: a synthesis of ant species geographic distributions. Myrmecological News, 24, 83–89.
- Gotelli, N.J., Ellison, A.M., Dunn, R.R. & Sanders, N.J. (2011) Counting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): biodiversity sampling and statistical analysis for myrmecologists. Myrmecological News, 34. https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_015:013
- Hillebrand, H. (2004) On the generality of the latitudinal diversity gradient. The American Naturalist, 163, 192–211. https://doi.org/10.1086/381004
- Hölldobler, B. & Willson, E.O. (1990) The ants. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 746 pp.
- Jobbágy, E.G., Sala, O.E. & Paruelo, J.M. (1995) Patterns and controls of primary production in the Patagonian steppe: A remote sensing approach. Ecology, 83, 307–319. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(2002)083[0307:PACOPP]2.0.CO;2
- Kusnezov, N. (1959) La fauna de hormigas en el oeste de la Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego. Acta Zoológica Lilloana, 17, 321–401
- Kusnezov, N. (1978) Hormigas Argentinas: Clave para su identificación. Fundación Miguel Lillo. Miscelánea, Tucumán, Argentina.
- Loewenberg-Neto, P. (2014) Neotropical region: a shapefile of Morrone’s (2014) biogeographical regionalisation. Zootaxa, 3802 (2), 300. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3802.2.12
- Morrone, J.J. (2014) Biogeographical regionalisation of the Neotropical region. Zootaxa, 3782 (1), 1–110. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3782.1.1
- Morrone, J.J. (2015) Biogeographical regionalisation of the Andean region. Zootaxa, 3936, 207–236. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3936.2.3
- Paruelo, J.M., Beltrán, A., Jobbágy, E., Sala, O.E. & Golluscio, R.A. (1998) The climate of Patagonia: General patterns and controls on biotic processes. Ecología Austral, 8, 85–102
- Paruelo, J.M., Jobbágy, E. & Sala, O.E. (1998) Biozones of Patagonia (Argentina). Ecología Austral, 8, 145–153
- Pielou, E. (1966) The measurement of diversity in different types of biological collections. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 13, 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(66)90013-0
- Relva, M.A. & Veblen, T.T. (1998) Impacts of introduced large herbivores on Austrocedrus chilensis forest in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Forest Ecology and Management, 108, 27–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(97)00313-7
- Ruggiero, A., Sackmann, P., Farji-Brener, A.G. & Kun, M. (2009) Beetle abundance-environment relationships at the Subantarctic-Patagonian transition zone. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 2, 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-4598.2009.00045.x
- Schultheiss, P., Nooten, S.S., Wang, R., Wong, M.K., Brassard, F. & Guénard, B. (2022) The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119, e2201550119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201550119
- Snelling, R.R. & Hunt, J.H. (1975) The ants of Chile (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Revista Chilena de Entomología, 9, 63–129
- Speziale, K.L., Ruggiero, A. & Ezcurra, C. (2010) Plant species richness-environment relationships across the Subantarctic-Patagonian transition zone. Journal of Biogeography, 37, 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02213.x