Publication Date:
2000-08-05
Description:
Researchers have uncovered new evidence about the long-range, and potentially long-term, ecological damage being wrought by an invasive species of fire ant. The red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta displaces other ant species and upsets the structures of native communities of ants--disruptions that appear to be permanent, they report in the July issue of Ecology Letters. The drop in biodiversity could represent a significant loss, experts note, because of the critical role ants play in recycling nutrients and other biological material.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2000 Jul 14;289(5477):231.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10917841" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Ants/physiology
;
*Ecosystem
;
United States
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
