Relationship of the hierarchy of dominance and abundance in the structure of the ant-plant interaction network

Abstract

Ants, like other organisms, have a hierarchy of dominance where each individual establishes a range that determines their access to resources. In ant-plant interactions, competitively superior and territorial ant species can limit access to the resource for submissive species. Some studies mention that abundance contributes to the organization of these complex networks of interaction. However, abundance outside the ecological network is only partially explained by the probability of ant species finding their food resource. Despite the importance of competition within the structure of the ant-plant interaction network, few studies have been done on the dominance hierarchy behavior, which could help us to understand the structural complexity of the ant community in different types of ecosystems. In this article we will make a brief review of how the hierarchical behavior of ants and their abundance can determine the structure of the ant-plant interaction network.