Ants are ectothermic, meaning their body temperature is heavily dependent on the environment. As a result, they're heavily sensitive to temperature fluctuations.at the University of Colorado Boulder. Researchers there were able to look at data taken in a 60-plus-year time span and see how certain ant species were forced out of the original habitats along Gregory Canyon in Boulder.
"We looked at how ant communities have changed locally over time and we essentially found that there were more similarities in terms of the ant species that were present in the community than there was historically," said Anna Paraskevopoulos, lead author of the study and a PhD student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
"Unfortunately we don't have monitoring data for insects and so you know, by being able to resample these historical studies, it can give us glimpses into how insect biodiversity is is changing over long, long time periods," said Resasco. "One of the benefits of working in this area and why I think this also is a cool study, is this area hasn't really changed much since that historical study was done. It has been maintained by the City of Boulder. So it kind of lets us look at how changes are happening without really worrying about that, like, land use change part as much," said Paraskevopoulos.Ants are crucial to ecosystems, not just here in Colorado, but across the planet.