Soil Fauna of Natural and Anthropogenic Ecosystems
Research projects
MonitAnt: Developing a European-level Monitoring strategy for mound-building Formica ants and symbiont communities residing in nest mounds
Project number: SS73020007
Main beneficiary: Biology Centre CAS
Other beneficiaries (foreign partners): University of Bayreuth, Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Universitatea Babes-Bolyai din Cluj-Napoca, Luonnonvarakeskus
Principal investigator: Mgr. Jiří Tůma PhD.
Project duration: 01. 04. 2024 - 31. 12. 2026
The aim of the project: The project will compare existing monitoring strategies of Citizen Science projects and other monitoring programmes. By compiling the available data, we will be able to inform stakeholders on the current status of MBFs on a transnational level. Within the project the newly developed monitoring strategy will be validated on a transnational level to include different forest and grassland types. This validation phase will be used to collect baseline data on the manifold invertebrate species hosted by these umbrella species as well as thresholds of patch sizes for survival and reproduction characterized to help close current knowledge gaps. This project aims to deliver a harmonized efficient and cost-effective monitoring strategy that will be made freely available to stakeholders in policymaking but also for citizen science projects with the aim that long-term monitoring of population trends of mound-building Formica ants (MBF) and their associated myrmecophiles.
This project has been financed with the state support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic within the Partnership for Biodiversity Programme.
