Effect Of Land Degradation On Soil Fertility And Ant Biodiversity In Nagpur District

  • Seema. G. Kadu

Abstract

 Ants are important in below ground processes through the alteration of the physical and chemical environment and through their effects on plants, microorganisms, and other soil organisms. The role of ants in ecosystems is discussed, mainly from the perspective of the effects of ground-dwelling ants on soil processes and function, emphasizing their role as ecosystem engineers. Some lines of research are suggested after demonstrating the gaps in our current information on ant-soil interactions that natural bioturbation is one of the most important ant activity that modifies and homogenizes soil profile. Soil homogenization and mounding are mainly influence the vegetation with below ground plant parameters. Ant biodiversity is incredibly high and these organisms are highly responsive to human impact, which obviously reduces its richness due such excavations and degradation of lands implementing development agenda.The survey of present study observed three ants genera under the subfamilies Myrmicinae, Dolichoderinae, and Formicinae in experimental rural and urban area. In rural area maximum number of ant mounds with dense vegetation of different plants population was observed as compared to the urban areas. Soil homogenization and mound nesting by ants species mainly influence the vegetation with below ground plant parameters. Also, the movement of particles from lower horizons to the surface area by ant aids affects the mixing of organic and mineral fractions of the soil to increase the fertility. The faeces of ants are the basis for the formation of soil aggregates and humus, which physically stabilize the soil and increase its porosity to store nutrients. In Nagpur district present study analysed the physicochemical characteristics of ant mounds soil of different three important genera of ants. This review summarizes the information available on ant biodiversity patterns, how it can be quantified, and how biodiversity is affected by human impacts such as land use change, pollution, invasions, and climate change. However, it is not clear how such disturbance damages the maintenance of ant services to the ecosystem. In rural areas being encouraged to redress the problems of land degradation by implementing a series of changes in their land management. However, in metro cities there are few tools to monitor soil condition which can reliably inform the state of soil level.

Published
2020-07-01
Section
Articles