Inland ants 'prefer salt to sugar'
Research finds that inland ants prefer salt to sugar
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Tuesday, 28, Oct 2008 06:31
Ecologists have found that inland ants prefer salt to sugar.
Experts from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma tested the salt versus sugar preferences of ants from North, Central and South America, using ant populations at varying distances from the ocean.
Authors of the report said that while ocean spray and storms can spread salt tens of miles from the coast, areas farther inland are often deprived of salt, leading the researchers to believe they might find different taste choices between coastal and inland ants.
And the research showed that ants living more than 60 miles inland often preferred one per cent salt solution over a sugar solution ten times more concentrated.
This was found to be true primarily for plant-eating ants though, with carnivorous ants apparently getting enough salt from their prey.
"Attractiveness to salt increases with distance from the ocean," said co-author Robert Dudley, from the University of California, Berkeley.
"It's really fascinating that we see a pattern on this grand, continental scale."
Steve Yanoviak, from the University of Arkansas added: "Ants will always go for the sugar because they need sugar to provide the basic energy for life and for their activity."
"But when you see ants spending increasing amounts of time or employing increasingly large numbers of individuals foraging for salt, it suggests that salt is a resource that is limiting to them. Their ability to be competitive and maintain themselves in different environments could be limited by a resource like salt."
The authors argue that whatholds true for ants may well be true of all insects and even microbes, pointing to a role for salt, or sodium chloride, in the ecosystem that has not been recognised before.
"One implication of this study is that even basic ecosystem processes, like the whole carbon cycle, may be influenced by the availability of sodium," Michael E. Kaspari from University of Oklahoma in Norman, stated.
"If you want to have a nice lawn or grow vegetables, you add the big-three nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Salt is almost like fertiliser for animals."