Abstract: Ants, the most abundant taxa among canopy-dwelling animals in tropical rainforests, are mostly represented by territorially dominant arboreal ants (TDAs) whose territories are distributed in a mosaic pattern (arboreal ant mosaics). Large TDA colonies regulate insect herbivores, with implications for forestry and agronomy. What generates these mosaics in vegetal formations, which are dynamic, still needs to be better understood. So, from empirical research based on 3 Cameroonian tree species (Lophira alata, Ochnaceae; Anthocleista vogelii, Gentianaceae; and Barteria fistulosa, Passifloraceae), we used the Self-Organizing Map (SOM, neural network) to illustrate the succession of TDAs as their host trees grow and age. The SOM separated the trees by species and by size for L. alata, which can reach 60 m in height and live several centuries. An ontogenic succession of TDAs from sapling to mature trees is shown, and some ecological traits are highlighted for certain TDAs. Also, because the SOM permits the analysis of data with many zeroes with no effect of outliers on the overall scatterplot distributions, we obtained ecological information on rare species. Finally, the SOM permitted us to show that functional groups cannot be selected at the genus level as congeneric species can have very different ecological niches, something particularly true for Crematogaster spp., which include a species specifically associated with B. fistulosa, nondominant species and TDAs. Therefore, the SOM permitted the complex relationships between TDAs and their growing host trees to be analyzed, while also providing new information on the ecological traits of the ant species involved. © 2015 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Abstract: Although the Neotropical territorially dominant arboreal ant Azteca chartifex Forel is very aggressive towards any intruder, its populous colonies tolerate the close presence of the fierce polistine wasp Polybia rejecta (F.).
In French Guiana, 83.33% of the 48 P. rejecta nests recorded were found side by side with those of A. chartifex. This nesting association results in mutual protection from predators (i.e., the wasps protected from army ants; the ants protected from birds).
We conducted field studies, laboratory-based behavioral experiments and chemical analyses to elucidate the mechanisms allowing the persistence of this association. Due to differences in the cuticular profiles of the two species, we eliminated the possibility of chemical mimicry.
Also, analyses of the carton nests did not reveal traces of marking on the envelopes. Because ant forager flows were not perturbed by extracts from the wasps' Dufour's and venom glands, we rejected any hypothetical action of repulsive chemicals. Nevertheless, we noted that the wasps 'scraped' the surface of the upper part of their nest envelope using their mandibles, likely removing the ants' scent trails, and an experiment showed that ant foragers were perturbed by the removal of their scent trails. This leads us to use the term 'erasure hypothesis'. Thus, this nesting association persists thanks to a relative tolerance by the ants towards wasp presence and the behavior of the wasps that allows them to 'contain' their associated ants through the elimination of their scent trails, direct attacks, 'wing-buzzing' behavior and ejecting the ants.

Abstract: Abstract Land-use changes frequently lead to major changes in the composition and diversity of organisms. A reduction in the range of strategies enabling organisms to survive in a given environment and changes in the average trait values of species may potentially be associated with variations in species? number and identity. We investigated the variation in ant taxonomic composition and morphological trait diversity along a land-use gradient in French Guiana. We measured 13 core ant morphological traits on all species sampled. We then selected the set of five traits that best captured changes along the land-use gradient. Potential effects of the variation in morphological trait diversity and average values were evaluated by examining morphological traits individually as well as in combination. We found that variation in taxonomic diversity was unrelated to the plot-level morphospace. Conversely, a significant shift in taxonomic composition was accompanied by changes in the average values of community traits along the studied gradient, examined both individually and in combination. We argue that morphological trait values may be related to the success of different species in surviving in a given environment and, therefore, are indicative of the taxonomic turnover in ants along the land-use gradient. Nevertheless, in contradiction with theoretical expectations, the morphospace is only slightly affected by habitat filtering and loosely impacted by taxonomic changes. Examining the sensitivity of the morphospace to abiotic and biotic factors and how it reflects varying ecological pressures for species is thus of the utmost importance.

Abstract: The state-space modeling of partially observed dynamical systems generally requires estimates of unknown parameters. The dynamic state vector together with the static parameter vector can be considered as an augmented state vector. Classical filtering methods, such as the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the bootstrap particle filter (PF), fail to estimate the augmented state vector. For these classical filters to handle the augmented state vector, a dynamic noise term should be artificially added to the parameter components or to the deterministic component of the dynamical system. However, this approach degrades the estimation performance of the filters. We propose a variant of the PF based on convolution kernel approximation techniques. This approach is tested on a simulated case study.

Abstract: In this letter, the temporal coherence of tropical forest scattering at P-band is addressed by means of a ground-based experiment. The study is based on the TropiScat campaign in French Guiana, designed to support the Biomass mission, which will be the ESA 7th Earth Explorer mission. For Biomass, temporal coherence is a crucial parameter for coherent processing of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry and SAR tomography in repeat-pass acquisitions. During the experiment, data were continuously collected for six months during both the rainy and dry seasons. For the rain-free days in both seasons, the coherence exhibits a daily cycle showing a high decorrelation during daytime, which is likely due to motion in the canopy. Up to a 20-day baseline, the coherence is much higher in the dry season than in the rainy season (> 0.8). From 20 to 40 days, it presents the same order of magnitude in both seasons [0.6, 0.7]. For larger temporal baselines, it becomes lower in the dry season. The results can be used to assess the long-term coherence of repeat-pass observations over a tropical forest. However, an extension of this study to several years and over other forest spots would be necessary to draw more general conclusions.