Establishment of a taxonomic key and electronic documentation for all ant species of the EFForTS project
From 2012‐2014, ants have been collected by at least three different scientific projects within EFForTS, i.e. B01 (leaf litter), B09 (shrub layer) and Z02 (canopy). The aim of the study is to physically combine the ant collections from all three scientific projects and establish a taxonomic key to all morphospecies. In order to do this, we will classify trait characters that distinguish between different morphospecies and work them into a taxonomic key using the software LUCID. While documenting all morphospecies photographically, we will take measurements of certain key morphological characters in order to estimate biomass distribution of ants across the four land‐use systems forest, jungle rubber, rubber and oil palm. All data obtained, including abundance data, photographs, morphological measurements, traits, etc., will be deposited in an emerging database under the management of Dr. Anton Potapov (B08) with the aim to share information more transparently and efficiently among the EFForTS research members and stakeholders.
