Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area

This study was carried out within the primary forest at Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Malaysia and an adjacent oil palm plantation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of forest conversion to oil palm plantation area on ant diversity and to determine the effectiveness of all samplin...

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Main Author:	Lai, Chin Hor
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English English
Published:	2008
Subjects:	QL461-599.82 Insects
Online Access:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
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id	my-ums-ep.38526
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-ums-ep.385262024-04-23T07:02:20Z Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area 2008 Lai, Chin Hor QL461-599.82 Insects This study was carried out within the primary forest at Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Malaysia and an adjacent oil palm plantation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of forest conversion to oil palm plantation area on ant diversity and to determine the effectiveness of all sampling methods used to sample ants at both study sites. Five sampling methods were used: arboreal baited pitfall trapping, extraction of ants from arboreal Asplenium nidus, Winkler bags, terrestrial baited pitfall trapping and hand collection using forceps through 100m belt transect. A total of 126 species of ants belonging to 47 genera and ten subfamilies were sampled in the primary forest of Tawau Hills Park meanwhile 82 species of ants belonging to 36 genera and seven subfamilies were sampled in the oil palm plantation. A total of 62 species of ants appeared exclusively in primary forest of Tawau Hills Park (i.e. not found in oil palm plantation). Assumption was made that some ant species were lost when primary forest was converted into oil palm plantation. In this research, ant species of Tapinoma melanocepha/um and Anoplo/epis gracilipes were recorded in oil palm plantation and Anoplolepis gracilipeswas recorded in the primary forest of Tawau Hills Park. For terrestrial primary forest ants, manual transects gave the best results yielding 77 species whereas terrestrial pitfall method and Winkler's bags method yielded 42 and 44 species respectively. For arboreal ants in the primary forest, pitfall trap yielded 26 species meanwhile, extraction from Asplenium nidus root only recorded seven species. For terrestrial oil palm ants, manual transects gave the best results yielding 48 species whereas terrestrial pitfall method and Winkler's bags method yielded 21 and 24 species respectively. For arboreal ants in oil palm plantation, pitfall trap yielded 35 species meanwhile extraction from Asplenium nidus root only recorded 13 species. Based on the values of Shannon-Weiner diversity index and Evenness index, not all sampling methods in primary forest of Tawau Hills Park will record a higher value of these indexes compared with the indexes of oil palm plantation. This was mainly due to baited trapping method as this method recorded high abundance of Pheidologeton affinis and Lophomyrmex bedoti. Shannon-Weiner diversity index tend to be lower with these ant species of high abundance. In conclusion, this study showed that land conversion of primary forest into oil palm plantation decrease the total ant species number. Besides that, this land conversion also changes the species composition of the ant community, accompanied by an increase of invasive ant species in the oil palm plantation. Based on sampling efficiency that above 80% given by at least one species richness estimator for all the sampling methods used in this study, the conclusion that can be made is that all the sampling methods are effective to sample ants in both the primary forest of Tawau Hills Park and oil palm plantation. 2008 Thesis https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/ https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/1/24%20PAGES.pdf text en public https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/2/FULLTEXT.pdf text en validuser masters Universiti Malaysia Sabah Institut Biologi Tropika dan Pemuliharaan
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
collection	UMS Institutional Repository
language	English English
topic	QL461-599.82 Insects
spellingShingle	QL461-599.82 Insects Lai, Chin Hor Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
description	This study was carried out within the primary forest at Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Malaysia and an adjacent oil palm plantation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of forest conversion to oil palm plantation area on ant diversity and to determine the effectiveness of all sampling methods used to sample ants at both study sites. Five sampling methods were used: arboreal baited pitfall trapping, extraction of ants from arboreal Asplenium nidus, Winkler bags, terrestrial baited pitfall trapping and hand collection using forceps through 100m belt transect. A total of 126 species of ants belonging to 47 genera and ten subfamilies were sampled in the primary forest of Tawau Hills Park meanwhile 82 species of ants belonging to 36 genera and seven subfamilies were sampled in the oil palm plantation. A total of 62 species of ants appeared exclusively in primary forest of Tawau Hills Park (i.e. not found in oil palm plantation). Assumption was made that some ant species were lost when primary forest was converted into oil palm plantation. In this research, ant species of Tapinoma melanocepha/um and Anoplo/epis gracilipes were recorded in oil palm plantation and Anoplolepis gracilipeswas recorded in the primary forest of Tawau Hills Park. For terrestrial primary forest ants, manual transects gave the best results yielding 77 species whereas terrestrial pitfall method and Winkler's bags method yielded 42 and 44 species respectively. For arboreal ants in the primary forest, pitfall trap yielded 26 species meanwhile, extraction from Asplenium nidus root only recorded seven species. For terrestrial oil palm ants, manual transects gave the best results yielding 48 species whereas terrestrial pitfall method and Winkler's bags method yielded 21 and 24 species respectively. For arboreal ants in oil palm plantation, pitfall trap yielded 35 species meanwhile extraction from Asplenium nidus root only recorded 13 species. Based on the values of Shannon-Weiner diversity index and Evenness index, not all sampling methods in primary forest of Tawau Hills Park will record a higher value of these indexes compared with the indexes of oil palm plantation. This was mainly due to baited trapping method as this method recorded high abundance of Pheidologeton affinis and Lophomyrmex bedoti. Shannon-Weiner diversity index tend to be lower with these ant species of high abundance. In conclusion, this study showed that land conversion of primary forest into oil palm plantation decrease the total ant species number. Besides that, this land conversion also changes the species composition of the ant community, accompanied by an increase of invasive ant species in the oil palm plantation. Based on sampling efficiency that above 80% given by at least one species richness estimator for all the sampling methods used in this study, the conclusion that can be made is that all the sampling methods are effective to sample ants in both the primary forest of Tawau Hills Park and oil palm plantation.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Lai, Chin Hor
author_facet	Lai, Chin Hor
author_sort	Lai, Chin Hor
title	Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
title_short	Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
title_full	Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
title_fullStr	Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
title_full_unstemmed	Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
title_sort	ant communities (hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of tawau hills park, sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area
granting_institution	Universiti Malaysia Sabah
granting_department	Institut Biologi Tropika dan Pemuliharaan
publishDate	2008
url	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/1/24%20PAGES.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38526/2/FULLTEXT.pdf
_version_	1804890323691765760

Ant communities (Hymenoptera : formicidae) in a primary tropical rainforest of Tawau Hills Park, Sabah and adjacent oil palm plantation area

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