A summary of dissertation research

My research broadly examines a variety of questions stemming from ant richness and abundance. Specifically, four of the five chapters focus on factors affecting ant richness and on how ants influence the diversity and abundance of soil organisms. Chapter 1 documents the abiotic and biotic components that affect ant richness on desert islands in the Sea of Cortés where plants, seabirds, and island area explained most of the variation in ant species number across islands. Chapter 4 addresses similar questions for ground-dwelling ants in a northern California grassland. In this grassland ecosystem, soil properties explained most of the variation in ant richness and abundance across sites, and plant community properties did not consistently correlate with ant abundance or richness. Chapter 2 illustrates that nests of the granivorous ant, Messor andrei, have a positive impact on both soil foodwebs and chemistry, and Chapter 3 suggests a possible mechanism behind this “ant effect” via results from a field experiment. Finally, research on a rare case of brood parasitism among spiders from the Mojave Desert is presented in Chapter 5.