Red wood ants (RWAs) are a group of keystone species widespread in temperate and boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite this, there is increasing evidence of local declines and extinctions. We reviewed the current protection status of RWAs throughout Europe and their International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat classification. Only some RWA species have been assessed at a global scale, and not all national red lists of the countries where RWAs are present include these species. Different assessment criteria, inventory approaches, and risk categories are used in different countries, and data deficiency is frequent. Legislative protection is even more complex, with some countries protecting RWAs implicitly together with the wildlife fauna and others explicitly protecting the whole group or particular species. This complexity often occurs within countries, for example, in Italy, where, outside of the Alps, only the introduced species are protected, whereas the native species, which are in decline, are not. Therefore, an international, coordinated framework is needed for the protection of RWAs. This first requires that the conservation target should be defined. Due to the similar morphology, complex taxonomy, and frequent hybridization, protecting the entire RWA group seems a more efficient strategy than protecting single species, although with a distinction between autochthonous and introduced species. Second, an update of the current distribution of RWA species is needed throughout Europe. Third, a protection law cannot be effective without the collaboration of forest managers, whose activity influences RWA habitat. Finally, RWA mounds offer a peculiar microhabitat, hosting a multitude of taxa, some of which are obligate myrmecophilous species on the IUCN Red List. Therefore, RWAs’ role as umbrella species could facilitate their protection if they are considered not only as target species but also as providers of species-rich microhabitats.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
The Latest Danian Event (LDE) has been recognized on the southern Tethyan margin (Egypt; Tunisia), and in the Atlantic (Zumaia, Spain) and Pacific Oceans (ODP Site 1209). Based on a supraregional carbon isotope excursion, and a negative shift in oxygen isotopes in the Pacific it has been suggested that the LDE is an early Paleogene transient warming event. So far the environmental effects of the LDE have been observed in few sections and details on its impact and duration are scarce. We present a quantitative study of benthic foraminiferal assemblages retrieved from five sections along a depth transect on the Paleocene southern Tethyan shelf (Nile Basin, Egypt) to assess paleoenvironmental change during the LDE. The lithologic sequences and foraminiferal assemblages indicate that the onset of the LDE is related to widespread shelf dysoxia. The organic-rich laminated marls of lower LDE bed I contain levels devoid of benthic foraminifera. During the later stage of the LDE (dark-gray shales of bed II) the shelf is repopulated by a Neoeponides duwi benthic assemblage, occurring in all sections, initiating a gradual restoration of normal-marine shelf environments. Q-mode and R-mode correspondence analysis assist in the interpretation of the N. duwi assemblage, which is related to disturbed conditions at the sea floor following oxygen depletion and increased organic loading. The sharp lithologic boundary at the base of the LDE suggests that the event coincides with a rapid transgression following a sea-level fall, with an estimated amplitude of ~ 50 m or less. Comparison with the Dan-C2 and ELPE/MPBE, two proposed transient warming episodes preceding and postdating the LDE, shows that the three Paleocene events have several characteristics in common. However, the duration of the LDE (~ 200 kyr) exceeds the estimated duration of the other events, and a sea-level cycle is only reported from the LDE.
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