The activity of P. occidentalis, harvester ants, has been shown to enrich soil nutrients around their mounds due to the ants’ movement of particles1. The rudimentary soil composition in certain areas has also influenced the density and variation of ant populations2. In our experiment, the effects of salinity on the harvester ants burrowing behaviors were tested.
Hypothesis: The ants will burrow more in the sand where the salinity is lower.
Half of an ant farm was filled with regular, untouched sand, while the other half was filled with sand where the salinity was manipulated to be that of seawater (35 ppt). Eight ants were added to the farm and left to burrow for 6 days, while every few days their food and water were restocked. The burrowing results and general observations were recorded and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the results.
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