Table 3. The global reported ranges of numbers of individuals m−2 and biomass m−2 for ecosystem engineers and macroinvertebrates.
| Source | Ants m−2/g m−2 | Termitesm−2/g m−2 *** | Earthwormsm−2/g m−2 *** | Othermacroinvertebratesm−2/g m−2 *** | Ants%/Termites %(maximum)** |
| This study | |||||
| Yale Myers (41° N) | 0–22/0–0.102 | 0/0 | 0–3/0–0.300 | 18–83/0.108–4.003 | 2.5%/0% |
| Coweeta (35° N) | 1–19/0.001–0.018 | 0–6/0–0.005 | 0/0 | 10–47/0.098–5.186 | 0.3%/0.09% |
| Whitehall (33° N) | 2–1084/0.003–0.739 | 1–19/0–0.013 | 0/0 | 5–23/0.079–0.823 | 47%/0.8% |
| San Felasco (29° N) | 111–8310/0.027–31.578 | 0–163/0–0.091 | 0/0 | 45–268/0.185–1.506 | 95%/0.3% |
| [68] Bignell & Eggleton | |||||
| Tropical forests (Africa, Asia, Neotropics) | NA | 38–6957/0–33.264 | NA | NA | NA |
| Tropical savannas (Africa) | NA | 49–4402/0.216–2.990 | NA | NA | NA |
| Temperate forests (Australia) | NA | NA/0.810–1.350 | NA | NA | NA |
| Temperate scrub and grasslands (Australia, USA) | NA | NA/0.262–1.350 | NA | NA | NA |
| [12] Wood & Sands | |||||
| Temperate forest (Australia) | NA | 600/0.810 | NA | NA | NA |
| Semi arid savanna and grasslands (North America, Africa) | NA | 0–9127/0–5.997 | NA | NA | NA |
| Tropical savannas (Africa, Australia) | NA | 70–4402/0.459–2.997 | NA | NA | NA |
| Tropical Forests (Africa, Southeast Asia, Neotropics) | NA | 87–4450/0.027–2.970 | NA | NA | NA |
| [69] Baroni-Urbani & Pisarski | |||||
| Various (mostly temperate Europe and USA) | 0–115,825/NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| [21] Kaspari & Weiser | |||||
| Various (New Worldtemperate to tropics) | NA/<0.010–<1.000 | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| [9] Lavelle & Spain | |||||
| Various (worldwide “cold,” temperate, and tropical) | NA | NA | ∼20–120/∼0.6–∼ 24.3 | NA | NA |
| [14] Lavelle | |||||
| Tropical grasslands(Ivory Coast, Mexico) | 500–1400/0.273–0.525 | 2–1200/<0.100–0.756 | 230–700/3.345–7.350 | 147–558/0.240–14.370 | 0.9%/1.4% |
| [37] Callaham & Hendrix | |||||
| Appalachian Piedmont(33° N, USA) | NA | NA | 0–120/0–∼ 8.250 * | NA | NA |
| [70] Shakir & Dindal | |||||
| Various temperate forests (43°N, USA) | NA | NA | 37–200/0.375–4.785* | NA | NA |
| [71] Suarez et al. | |||||
| Temperate hardwood forest (42°N, USA) | NA | NA | 22–99/0.9660–8.085 * | NA | NA |
| [72] Hendrix et al. | |||||
| Southeastern pine forest(30°N, USA) | NA | NA | 2/0.900 | NA | NA |
| [15] Petersen & Luxton | |||||
| Tundra | 0/0 | 0/0 | NA/0.330 | NA/0.550 | 0%/0% |
| Temperate grasslands | NA/0.1 | 0/0 | NA/3.100 | NA/1.410 | 2%/0% |
| Tropical grasslands | NA/0.3 | NA/1.000 | NA/0.170 | NA/0.075 | 19%/64% |
| Temperate coniferous forests | NA/0.01 | 0/0 | NA/0.450 | NA/0.570 | 1%/0% |
| Temperate deciduous forests | NA/0.01 | 0/0 | NA/0.200–5.300 | NA/1.280 | 0.2–0.6%/0% |
| Tropical forests | NA/0.03 | NA/1.000 | NA/0.340 | NA/0.060 | 2%/70% |
*
Majority exotic species.
**
Percent of maximum biomass (all macroinvertebrates) reported.
***
Conversion of fresh weights to dry weights (g) are estimates and followed that of [15]: termite fresh weight×0.27 = dry mass, earthworm fresh mass×0.15, ant fresh mass×0.23, and other macroinvertebrates fresh mass×0.30. These conversions do not apply to the invertebrates sampled in this study as those were dried and weighed.