Implications of heathland management for ant species composition and diversity – Is heathland management causing biotic homogenization?

Maintaining heathland ecosystems in an early successional stage is a major aim of most management regimes, such as harvesting, burning or grazing. However, how these types of management affect important ecosystem engineers such as ants, are poorly understood. We registered the density of ant colonies in managed plots (harvested, burned and grazed) and plots with long succession (so forth unmanaged) across six different dry lowland heath sites....