Invasive Ants: Unwanted Partners in Ant-Plant Interactions?

By Lori Lach. 2003

129 citations recorded by the source corpus.

As invasive ants spread, their interactions with plants are inevitable and have potentially great implications for agriculture and conservation. When considered in the context of pre-existing models of ant-plant interactions, the higher abundance, aggressive nature, and attraction to high-carbohydrate resources typically associated with invasive ants lead to hypotheses about how invasive ants may differ from native ants in protecting plants from herbivores, tending of Homoptera, and interactions affecting plant reproduction. Examples demonstrate that all three of these traits common to invasive ants can influence the outcome of interactions between invasive ants and plants, but ant biology and attributes of other organisms also determine the consequences for the plant. Drawing from these examples and considering traits of the invasive ants, plants, and other organisms that interact with the plant, I offer predictions for the contexts in which plants will be at high and low risk of adverse outcomes or may benefit from interacting with an invasive ant. The potential for effects of invasive ants on plants to counteract, and the complexity and context-dependency that are hallmarks of ant-plant interactions generally, preclude drawing simple conclusions about the net impacts of invasive ants on plants. Further research on interactions between invasive ants and plants will contribute directly to conservation and agriculture, and provide insights to invasion ecology and our understanding of ant-plant interactions.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2505b9e36c76ef8e569f9f51fbb3cd6210bc70e2

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. I. Kaplan
2. M. Eubanks
3. J. Bronstein
4. J. Ness
5. Monica L. Cooper
6. J. Fallon
7. K. Sime
8. K. Daane

In Genetics

1. I. Kaplan
2. J. Bronstein
3. J. Ness
4. M. Eubanks
5. Monica L. Cooper
6. J. Fallon
7. K. Sime
8. K. Daane

In Plant Science

1. I. Kaplan
2. M. Eubanks
3. J. Ness
4. K. Daane
5. J. Bronstein
6. Martin Heil

Citations in the corpus

• The Effects of Invasive Ants on Prospective Ant Mutualists (2004, background): “the importance of these interactions, however, even simple conclusions about the net impacts of invasive ants on prospective mutualists remain elusive (Lach 2003).”
• APHIDS ALTER THE COMMUNITY‐WIDE IMPACT OF FIRE ANTS (2005, background): “…ant–aphid mutualism for biological control The potential for hemipterans to act as positive contributors to biological control by enhancing the performance of natural enemies has previously been recognized (Way and Khoo 1992, Lach 2003), although few studies have experimentally tested this concept.”
• Impacts of Argentine ants on mealybugs and their natural enemies in California’s coastal vineyards (2007, background): “In agricultural and ornamental ecosystems, Argentine ants have long been associated with outbreaks of honeydew-producing homopterans ( Bartlett, 1961; Way, 1963; Buckley, 1987; Lach, 2003; Ness & Bronstein, 2004 ).”