Harvester ants are common and prevalent in many arid systems. They interact with both the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem and are responsible for immense transfer of seeds, soil and organic materials. In one set of projects, we investigate the the interaction between plants, ants and the soil biota in a desert ecosystem. We investigate the effect of ant activity (around the nesting site) and desert shrubs (as two ecosystem engineers) on biodiversity above (annual plants) and below (soil microbial and fungal communities) ground. This work in collaboration with Dr. Osnat Gillor (Baubine et al. 2019, Baubin et al. in review).

In another part of this project, we explored the within- and between-species thermal tolerance of two species of harvester ants. Species of co-occurring harvester ants seem to differ in colony size, diet, foraging mode and the levels of within-colony variation in worker size.  In addition, there seems to be some partition in activity time, which seems to be related to species-specific thermal tolerance to extreme temperatures. In this project, we aim to explore a) whether differences and variation in thermal tolerance of three harvester ant species may explain the differences in their activity levels; b) whether these are related to variation in worker body size, and c) what are the implications of such differences, if they exist, to the role of harvester ants in arid system in the face of global (and local) climate change.