MonitAnt: Developing a European-level Monitoring strategy for mound- building Formica Ants and symbiont communities residing in nest mounds
Preliminary results of the project
The project
Summary
Mound-building Formica ants (MBF) are a group of keystone species widespread in temperate and boreal forests and natural grasslands. They provide important ecosystem services especially in forest habitats and their large and long-lived nests are habitat to a broad range of other species, so-called mymecophiles, specific to Formica ants. While there is increasing evidence of local declines and extinctions due to fragmentation of their forest habitats, climate change, changing management practices, or conversion of natural grasslands to more intensively used agricultural land an assessment of population trends and threat status of these ants across European countries is largely lacking. This is mainly due to the lack of a common monitoring strategy but also due to differences in conservation status throughout the EU. In addition, it is unknown how the multitude of taxa depending on the peculiar microhabitat of Formica nest mounds, are impacted by the above mentioned threats to MBFs. Therefore, an international, coordinated framework is needed to develop a common cost-effective and efficient monitoring strategy of MBFs and their associated invertebrate communities, allowing a comparison of population trends across Europe. Currently, a wealth of data on the occurrence of mound-building Formica is available in most European countries, often based on local to regional Citizen Science projects as well as monitoring programs inititiated by policymakers, but these are not treated in a Europewide consistent way. Within the project MonitAnt we will compare existing monitoring strategies of Citizen Science projects and other monitoring programmes (Theme 1). By compiling the available data, we will be able to inform stakeholders (e.g. national nature conservation and forestry agencies; central and local administrations; EuropaBON; EU Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity) on the current status of MBFs on a transnational level (Theme 3). Within MonitAnt the newly developed monitoring strategy will be validated on a transnational level to include different forest and grassland types (in terms of management and along a large latitudinal and elevational gradients) and potentially refined in the field. This validation phase will be used to collect baseline data on the manifold invertebrate species hosted by these umbrella species as well as thresholds of patch sizes for survival and reproduction characterized to help close current knowledge gaps (Theme 2). MonitAnt aims to deliver a harmonized efficient and cost-effective monitoring strategy that will be made freely available to stakeholders in policymaking but also for citizen science projects with the aim that long-term monitoring of population trends of mound-building Formica ants (MBF) and their associated myrmecophiles is enabled.
Objectives
The aim of this project is to i) compare existing monitoring strategies for MBF on the European level, ii) develop and validate a harmonized monitoring strategy for policymakers and citizen science projects to facilitate monitoring of distribution and population trends of MBF, iii) monitor the diversity of myrmecophiles within nests along climatic, altitudinal, and fragmentation gradients to assess the importance of MBF as umbrella species, iv) establish thresholds for reproduction of MBF in managed forests and adjoining grasslands to identify requirements for stable populations, especially in the light of climate change, v) monitor genetic diversity of MBF along climatic and forest fragmentation gradients, vi) develop recommendations for conservation, based on a synthesis of the results obtained in the project, vii) deliver a cost-effective and efficient common monitoring scheme based on open science principles to enable a Europe-wide comparison of the threat status, distribution and population trends of MBF and associated species, viii) communicate results to different stakeholders and to the general public to facilitate conservation of MBF.
Expected outcomes
The MonitAnt project will deliver a harmonized, efficient and cost-effective monitoring strategy tested and usable throughout Europe. The strategy will be made freely available to stakeholders in policy making and also for citizen science projects with the aim that long-term monitoring of population trends of mound-building Formica ants (MBF) and their associated myrmecophiles is enabled. During the project several scientific articles will be published by the consortium, scientific workshops will be held, but outreach activities to the general public will also be organized. Altogether the project aims to boost the efficiency of conservation efforts regarding mound-building red wood ants throughout Europe.
The consortium
University of Bayreuth (Germany) – consortium lead – dr. Heike Feldhaar
University of York (England) – subcontracted partner – dr. Elva Robinson
University of Firenze (Italy) – dr. Giacomo Santini
EURAC Research (Italy) – dr. Elia Guariento
Biology Centre CAS (Czech Republic) – dr. Jiri Tuma
Luonnonvarakeskus (Finland) – dr. Jouni Sorvari
Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (Belgium) – dr. Wouter Dekoninck
University of Ghent (Belgium) – subcontracted partner – dr. Thomas Parmentier
This project is supported by a grant of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS/CCCDI – UEFISCDI, project number COFUND-BIODIVMON-MonitAnt, within PNCDI IV
Ants and 'friends' 