Akhmad Rizali

Ant Diversity in a Human-Modified Landscape : A Case Study from Borgor, West Java

Anoplolepis ants are not native to Indonesia but were introduced from Africa and are now found everywhere, especially in urban areas.

Dolichoderus is a native ant, very well known as a natural predator and usually found in Rambutan fruit.

Anoplolepis ants are not native to Indonesia but were introduced from Africa and are now found everywhere, especially in urban areas.

The main threat for biodiversity in Indonesia is the rapid loss and modification of rainforests. Humans have modified the world’s landscape for the past millennia. This also caused a change of the faunal and floral species composition on landscape level. Recent data also suggest that alien invasive species are major threats to indigenous wildlife species. Both factors are responsible for so-called “biotic homogenization” – this expression describes the situation where certain widespread species dominate local species, while the number of species with a restricted distribution decreases due to local extinctions.

In the tropics, ants are one of the most dominant terrestrial animal groups.  They have multiple functions such as providing a large proportion of the animal biomass, distributing plant seeds, and  being the major arthropod predators.  They are sensitive indicators for habitat disturbance. The aim of this project is to study ant diversity in and around Bogor to quantify the importance of biotic homogenization using ants as model organisms.  We seek to clarify how many species are native and how many are introduced.  We will also look at changes of ant species richness across a variety of urban habitats within and at the edges of Bogor. Ultimately we will produce a book on our local ants.

Contact Akhmad at A_rizali@yahoo.com