Myrmecophile metacommunities: integrating dispersal and food web interactions into spatial food web networks

The characteristics and dynamics of ecological communities can be analytically explored by using network analysis. The implications of space on the ecological network functioning has only recently been fully considered and virtually no studies have examined these in natural communities. In this proposal, I aim to analyse in depth a spatially distributed food web network
by combining empirical studies with theoretical modelling. To this end, I will examine a unique community of arthropods associated with ants, so-called myrmecophiles, in a spatial context. Red wood ant mounds support a complex food web of interacting myrmecophiles, and local food webs are connected in space by myrmecophile dispersal. Research questions will be addressed with
three complementary work packages. First, I will survey in high-resolution spatial variation in the myrmecophile food web network across heterogeneously distributed nests of red wood ants.
Next, I will test to which degree variation in dispersal and host detection capabilities of the different myrmecophiles depends on species-specific life traits or are conditional to local nest quality and intensity of local competition. Finally, the obtained empirical data will be used to parameterize a spatial network model. Changes in the spatial food web functioning will be
theoretically explored under conditions of varying nest availability, changes in productivity, and differences in regional metacommunity richness.