ArticleEnvironmental science and pollution research international2019
Body size variation of the ant Lasius niger along a metal pollution gradient.
Article in Environmental science and pollution research international, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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2 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Specialism and generalism in social animals in variable environments.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Experimental increase of worker diversity benefits brood production in ants.BMC ecology and evolution · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
The phenotypic diversity of ant workers plays a fundamental role in their biology. In this study, we asked if the body size variation of monomorphic workers of the ant Lasius niger (Formicidae) responds adaptively to metal pollution in a post-mining metal-polluted area. Nest samples of workers were collected along a pollution gradient to calculate the within-colony variance in body size (expressed as maximum head width, HW). The results showed that the body size variation of L. niger was unrelated to the pollution index but demonstrated considerable variation between colonies even within the same study site. We suggest that the differences in morphological diversity between the colonies of L. niger could be shaped by colony personality traits, i.e., by colony-specific foraging and/or the feeding efficiency of nursing workers. The study supports previous findings, showing that morphological traits in Lasius ants are weakly related to environmental metal pollution.
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