Sudha Kumari
Hema Singh
Neelkamal Rastogi
2016-12-02
<p><strong>The present study focuses on the physico-chemical characteristics of the nest rim debris soil of a common, abundant, plant-visiting ant, <em>Camponotus compressus</em></strong> <strong>(Fabricius, 1787)</strong><strong>. The results reveal that the colonies influence the nutrient content and the texture of the debris soil. The nest debris had significantly higher proportion of large-sized soil particles, along with higher total N, P, NO<sub>3</sub>-N, and moisture content but lower concentrations of total C and NH<sub>4</sub>-N as compared to the control soil. <em>Camponotus compressus</em> nests annually contributed about 3.1361 Kg of C, 1.5482 Kg of N, 0.05853 Kg of P, 0.14457 Kg of NO<sub>3</sub>-N and 0.1744 Kg of NH<sub>4</sub>-N per hectare via the debris soil of the long-lived primary nests. The short-lived satellite nests contributed, 1.7868 Kg of C, 0.7955 Kg of N, 0.0318 Kg of P, 0.0559 Kg NO<sub>3</sub>-N and 0.09623 Kg of NH<sub>4</sub>-N per hectare, annually. Thus, the activities of <em>C.</em> <em>compressus</em> colonies contribute to soil nutrient enhancement, alter the soil particle size distribution, shift the soil pH towards neutral and through their frequent satellite nest construction activities and enhance soil porosity. Since <em>C.</em> <em>compressus</em> is abundant in a variety of ecosystems including annual cropping systems, its nesting activities are suggested to enhance ecosystem productivity.</strong></p>
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.192341
oai:zenodo.org:192341
Zenodo
https://doi.org/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Halteres, 7, 163-174, (2016-12-02)
Ant nests, soil texture, soil nutrients, nutrient content.
Influence of the sugar-loving ant, Camponotus compressus (Fabricius, 1787) on soil physico-chemical characteristics
info:eu-repo/semantics/article