Ant Survey, South East Queensland Peri-urban SuperSite, Samford, Core 1 ha, 2015

Ants are Australia’s dominant faunal group in terms of biomass and energy flow. They occupy all trophic levels, act as ecosystem engineers, feature in many mutualistic interactions with plants, and are a key food resource for many vertebrates. Ants are also Australia’s best studied insect group in terms of biogeography and community dynamics. They are the most widely used invertebrate bio-indicators in environmental assessment and monitoring. Ants were collected in Apr and Nov 2015 and stored in ethanol for taxonomic assessment.

蚂蚁在生物量与能流层面，是澳大利亚占主导地位的动物类群。它们占据所有营养级，作为生态系统工程师发挥生态功能，参与诸多与植物的互利共生相互作用，同时亦是众多脊椎动物的关键食物资源。在生物地理学与群落动态研究领域，蚂蚁是澳大利亚被研究最为深入的昆虫类群，同时也是环境评估与监测中应用最广泛的无脊椎动物生物指示物。研究人员于2015年4月与11月采集蚂蚁样本，并将其保存于乙醇中以开展分类学评估。