Plants in Your Ants: Using Ant Mounds to Test Basic Ecological Principles

Jennifer A. Zettler; Alexander Collier; Bil Leidersdorf; Missa Patrick Sanou

doi:10.1525/abt.2010.72.3.8

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Jennifer A. Zettler,^* Alexander Collier,^* Bil Leidersdorf,^* Missa Patrick Sanou^**

^*JENNIFER A. ZETTLER (e-mail: jennifer.zettler@armstrong.edu) and ALEXANDER COLLIER are Associate Professors of Biology, and BIL LEIDERSDORF is a laboratory technician, at Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA 31419.
^**MISSA PATRICK SANOU is a graduate student in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

Abstract

Urban students often have limited access to field sites for ecological studies. Ubiquitous ants and their mounds can be used to study and test ecology-based questions. We describe how soil collected from ant mounds can be used to investigate how biotic factors (ants) can affect abiotic factors in the soil that can, in turn, influence plant growth.

©2010 by National Association of Biology Teachers. All rights reserved. Request permission to photocopy or reproduce article content at the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions Web site at www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp.

Citation Download Citation

Jennifer A. Zettler, Alexander Collier, Bil Leidersdorf, and Missa Patrick Sanou "Plants in Your Ants: Using Ant Mounds to Test Basic Ecological Principles," The American Biology Teacher 72(3), 172-175, (1 March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2010.72.3.8

Published: 1 March 2010