Human activities are the major threats to wildlife populations across the globe, but little is known about how wildlife will cope with these stresses. Positive interactions, which occur when one species benefits another by modifying habitat structure, food availability, or predation risk, serve as an important mechanism to increase the resistance of wildlife to human disturbances. Here, we show that how ants can indirectly facilitate a dominant bird (Anas poecilorhyncha) population by modifying the habitat structure in a mowing grassland in northern China.
Results/Conclusions
Mowing significantly decreased plant cover and plant height, as well as the amounts of litter accumulate on ground surface. But, such simplified habitats did not significantly decrease the abundance of A. poecilorhyncha bird, a species that often build their nests in vegetation. Likewise, mowing caused a slight increase in the abundance of ant mounds, which often grow more dense and higher vegetation compared to nearby habitats, providing microsites that allow nest building and refuge from predation for birds. Thus, ants appear indirectly prevent bird population decline by providing availability micro-habitats in mowing grasslands. Such habitat-mediated positive interactions between the two species appear mitigate the negative impacts of human disturbances on birds. Our study confirms that positive interactions often occur in stressful environments, and highlights the importance of positive interactions in maintain biodiversity and community structure in an increasingly managed world.