Ant species richness and evenness increase along a metal pollution gradient in the Boleslaw zinc smelter area

摘要

Ants are considered to be relatively resistant to metal pollution, but the effect ofmetal toxicity on ant communities is poorly understood. This work examined therelationship between ant species diversity and heavy metal pollution at 16 meadowand forest sites along a metal contamination gradient in a mining and smeltingregion near Olkusz, Poland. Menhinick's index was used to estimate species richness.Pielou's index of evenness (J), Simpson's index of diversity (D) and the slopes of rank-abundance curves were used to estimate of species evenness. Regardless of speciescomposition differences between forest and meadow, the increase in speciesdiversity with increasing metal pollution was very clear in both ecosystems. Themore polluted the site, the more species were detected and the more similar inrelative abundance they were. Consequently, the extent to which one or a fewspecies dominated a community decreased. This result can be explained by indirecteffects of metal pollution, that is, changes in species interactions rather than bychanges in abiotic conditions.