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Effect of Type of Seed on Amount of Seeds Consumed by Harvester Ants

By: Ella Fukazawa, Sarrah Furniturewala, Alyssa Sahami,Tarun Sarang

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Introduction

Background:

  • Many invasive species taking over in Riverside area
  • Includes many Mustard species
  • Why is it dangerous?
    • Eradicates the native species plants
      • Grows aggressively and rapidly
    • Changes the native biodiversity and ecological makeup of Riverside

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Introduction

Questions:

  • How does the type of seed affect the amount of seeds consumed by harvester ants?
  • Do harvester ants prefer native species plants or invasive species plants?

Why this question?

  • It is relevant to the recent ecological takeover of invasive species in Riverside
  • Want to see if the ants prefer a certain type of seed
    • Help determine if takeover of invasive species will affect ant population

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Introduction

Null Hypothesis

The ants have no preference on the type of seed consumed.

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Alternative Hypothesis

If the type of seed has an effect on the amount of seeds harvester ants consume, then the harvester ants will prefer to eat the native species seeds.

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Methods

Experimental Design:

  • Independent: type of seed (nominal)
  • Dependent: mass of seeds consumed (continuous)
  • Type of Seeds:
    • Native: White Sage
    • Invasive: Mustard

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  • Place seeds in petri dishes at 2 anthills
  • 5 trials
  • 6-hours long
  • Weigh seeds before trial and after
  • Subtract to find mass of seeds consumed

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Methods

  • Tested ants preferences to seeds
    • Ants eat more invasive or native?
  • Analysis of Variance (Anova) test
    • Continuous Dependent vs Nominal Independent

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Methods

Collecting Seeds!

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Methods

Placing the Seeds

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Methods

Reevaluating and trying a new method

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Results

  • Some white sage consumed

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  • All mustard consumed

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Results

N = Native (white sage), I = Invasive (mustard)

Average

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Results

Type of Seed vs. Mass of Seeds Consumed by Harvester Ants

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Results

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Discussion

  • H0: The ants have no preference on the type of seed consumed
  • Ha: If the type of seed has an effect on the amount of seeds harvester ants consume, then the harvester ants will prefer to eat the native species seeds.
  • The data does not support the alternative hypothesis or the null hypothesis
  • Ants preferred the invasive mustard seeds

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Discussion

  • Based on data
    • Ants adapting to invasive species takeover
    • Eating more mustard seed (invasive)
  • Ants will not die
    • Can adapt to new food source

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Discussion

  • Trends
    • Ants preferred non-native seeds
    • Lower ant hill had consumed white sage
  • If conducted on a different:
    • Year - similar results
    • Hill - different results
    • Biome - different results

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Discussion

Errors-

  • Weight of seeds
  • Wind
  • Petri dishes
  • Rocks, sticks, and soil

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Conclusion

Shortcomings -

  • Wind factor
  • Other species

Further research -

  • Other parts of plants
  • More species

Expanding -

  • More species
  • Isolating ants and seeds

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Thank

You!

Any Questions?