Comparing Ants Diversty in Different Lowland Forest Ecosystems

Ants are among the most diverse, abundant and ecologically significant organisms on earth. Although their species richness appears to be greatest in the new world tropics, global patterns of ant diversity and distribution are not well understood. The research project was the major project for the unit FR480 in 4th, year, Bachelor of Science in forest management, and it was core unit on the research based on the proposal and field experimental designs and field assessments. I had contacted the study at Morobe Province. A total of two (2) study sites were identified using the ARC GIS software and PNGRIS maps. Sites were selected by size, longitude, and degree of urbanization or degradation in the surrounding one km (1km) using a stratified random sampling methods. Ant diversity in the four different sites of the lowland forest ecosystems within the mix management forest and estimated sample area was covered was 100 ha. Ants species were hand collected at various sites with the aid of a suction apparatus. The collected quantitative data was analyzed using the Shannon index formula to test for test for diversity abundance and richness of ants species.