Ant-plant networks exhibit distinct species diversity but similar organization in urban and wild areas of neotropical savannas

Abstract

Interactions between ants and plants can form complex ecological networks, which may have their structure affected by human-induced habitat modification, such as urbanization. In this study, we investigated if the species diversity and the network topology of ant-plant co-occurrence networks (facultative associations between plants and ants) differs between remnants of Neotropical savannas. We sampled 12 savanna fragments (cerrado sensu stricto) in wild, rural and urban areas of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In total, the 12 ant-plant interaction networks were composed by 65 ant species, 83 plant species and 432 distinct interactions. We observed that in addition to variations in species composition, wild areas exhibited higher richness and abundance of ants compared to urban areas. However, our results show no variation in the specialization, modularity, and nestedness of ant-plant co-occurrence networks among urban, rural, and wild areas. Despite changes in species diversity, ant-plant interactions maintain consistent organization across studied environments, showcasing resilience to anthropogenic disturbances similar to that observed in wild remanants.