We know too little about the diversity of organisms, even about important groups such as the ants. Ants are nearly ubiquitous in terrestrial communities, where they can constitute a large portion of the animal biomass and play numerous roles in communities and ecosystems, serving as scavengers, predators, mutualists, and herbivores. Their nesting habits can alter the soil nutrient concentrations and biogeochemical cycles. Furthermore, ants are a useful indicator taxon of environmental stress and a diversity of other species. The work proposed here aims to document ant diversity in Great Smoky Mountains National Park . The end products of this work will be (i) an updated species list, (ii) a web page with natural history information, and (iii) a geo-referenced database with species ID and location.
Principal Investigator
PI Name: Dr. Nathan J. Sanders
PI Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
