Competition with insectivorous ants as a contributor to low songbird diversity at low elevations in the eastern Himalaya.

ABSTRACT: Competitive interactions between distantly related clades could cause complementary diversity patterns of these clades over large spatial scales. One such example might be ants and birds in the eastern Himalaya; ants are very common at low elevations but almost absent at mid-elevations where the abundance of other arthropods and insectivorous bird diversity peaks. Here, we ask if ants at low elevations could compete with birds for arthropod prey. Specifically, we studied the impact of the Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), a common aggressive ant at low elevations. Diet analysis using molecular methods demonstrate extensive diet overlap between weaver ants and songbirds at both low and mid-elevations. Trees without weaver ants have greater non-ant arthropod abundance and leaf

SUBMITTER: Supriya K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7246197 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature