The economic strategies of superorganisms - data and code

Ecological strategy schemes are a unifying concept in plant trait research, explaining significant variation in global trait-climate patterns. Applying these concepts to other taxonomic groups could progress the field towards a general theory of ecological trait-strategy dimensions. Social insects, as central placed, colonial invertebrates, provide a parallel to test ecological strategy theory across animal and plant kingdoms. Workers are analogous to leaves - responsible for energy and resource acquisition. Here, we explore whether the leaf economic spectrum, which places leaves on a spectrum from slow to fast return on investment of energy, mass, and nutrients, could be applied to ants. We gathered trait data on N and P levels, metabolic rate, mass density, and lifespan, which we hypothesise to capture a worker economic spectrum, from 123 ant species across a 1500 km climate and soil nutrient gradient in South-Eastern Australia. We used multi-response phylogenetic mixed models to examine trait covariation and trait-environment associations. More densely built and larger ants lived longer, had slower mass-specific metabolic rates, and high N:P ratios representing a strategy of high investment and slow resource return. On the other end of the spectrum, flimsy, small ants were short-lived, with higher mass-specific metabolic rates, and low N:P ratios representing a low investment, fast-paced strategy. Modulation of trait-trait relationships by climate and environment was moderate indicating that the full spectrum of economic strategies persists within all sites. Social insects and plants have tackled economic trade-offs in remarkably similar ways, supporting the generalisation of ecological strategy theory across kingdoms.