title: High Survival of Lasius niger during Summer Flooding in a European Grassland.
abstract: Climate change is projected to increase the frequency of extreme events, such as flooding and droughts, which are anticipated to have negative effects on the biodiversity of primary producers and consequently the associated consumer communities. Here we assessed the effects of an extreme early summer flooding event in 2013 on ant colonies along an experimental gradient of plant species richness in a temperate grassland. We tested the effects of flood duration, plant species richness, plant cover, soil temperature, and soil porosity on ant occurrence and abundance. We found that the ant community was dominated by Lasius niger, whose presence and abundance after the flood was not significantly affected by any of the tested variables, including plant species richness. We found the same level of occupation by L. niger at the field site after the flood (surveyed in 2013) as before the flood (surveyed in 2006). Thus, there were no negative effects of the flood on the presence of L. niger in the plots. We can exclude recolonisation as a possible explanation of ant presence in the field site due to the short time period between the end of the flood and survey as well as to the absence of a spatial pattern in the occupancy data. Thus, the omnipresence of this dominant ant species 1 month after the flood indicates that the colonies were able to survive a 3-week summer flood. The observed ant species proved to be flood resistant despite experiencing such extreme climatic events very rarely.
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Lionel R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Hertzog
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ebeling
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Nico
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenhauer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geoscience, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Burgweg 11, 07749 Jena, Germany.|Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, POB 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Geoscience, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Burgweg 11, 07749 Jena, Germany.|Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, POB 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurestrasse 190, CH-8057, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Cameron
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wagg
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, 85354 Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Weisser
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D044822:Biodiversity; D005060:Europe; D055868:Floods; D065948:Grassland; D016062:Porosity; D012621:Seasons; D012987:Soil; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012987:Soil