Ant assemblages along the Baekdudaegan Mountain Range in South Korea: Human roads and temperature niche

The Baekdudaegan is a Korean main mountain range that passes through the Korean Peninsula, and Korean people consider it to be the main ecological axis of the Korean Peninsula. Many motor roads cross the Baekdudaegan, and the Baekdudaegan trail is popular among hikers. The present study investigated the ants of Baekdudaegan using pitfall traps in two separate surveys (2006–2008 and 2009) with different sampling designs at six uphill passes to identify the impacts of motor roads and trails. There was no influence from motor roads found (distance from the road and forest fragmentation by road). In the case of trails, however, the further the ants were located from the trails, the less population tended to be observed. The composition of ant species was determined by the temperature niche of ants. When the ants went further south, cold-adapted species declined, while warm-adapted species increased. In this study, a total of 28 species were collected, which is not higher compared with species richness in other areas.