Currently, we are facing many ecosystem changes derived from years of anthropogenic disturbances. Habitat simplification stands out among human-derived impacts, due to its detrimental effects on vegetation structure and associated biota. Here, we assessed the effects of litter disturbance and forest simplification on a tropical ground-foraging ant community. To do that, we tested whether ant richness will be negatively affected by litter disturbance and habitat simplification. Additionally, we tested whether litter disturbance affects the time of resource discovery and dominance, and if so, whether its effects are intensified by forest simplification. This study occurred at Rio Doce State Park, a preserved area of Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil. We experimentally simulated litter disturbance by removing the leaf litter and superficial soil layer in a mahogany monoculture forest and preserved Atlantic Forest. We sampled ants using paired-mixed baits of protein and carbohydrate in 12 points, half of them in each forest type. As expected, we found higher richness in the preserved and non-disturbed forest. Moreover, resource discovery was faster in disturbed monoculture, but bait dominance was higher in the undisturbed preserved forest. Litter heterogeneity seems to play an important role in determining ant dispersion and intra-specific communication, as we observed that litter disturbance impacts were strengthened by forest simplification. Our results highlight the efficiency of ground-foraging ants as bioindicators of disturbance and habitat quality. Moreover, our study indicates how distinct types of disturbances can act synergistically, changing the assembly of associated biota.

目前，我们正面临着由多年人为干扰引起的许多生态系统变化。由于栖息地简化对植被结构和相关生物群的不利影响，栖息地简化在人为影响中脱颖而出。在这里，我们评估了垃圾干扰和森林简化对热带地面觅食蚂蚁群落的影响。为此，我们测试了蚂蚁的丰富度是否会受到垃圾干扰和栖息地简化的负面影响。此外，我们测试了凋落物干扰是否影响资源发现和优势的时间，如果是，则其影响是否因森林简化而加剧。这项研究发生在巴西东南部大西洋森林保护区里约多西州立公园。我们通过去除桃花心木单一栽培森林和保存完好的大西洋森林中的落叶和表层土壤层来实验模拟凋落物干扰。我们在 12 个点使用蛋白质和碳水化合物的配对混合诱饵对蚂蚁进行采样，其中每个森林类型各占一半。正如预期的那样，我们在保存完好和未受干扰的森林中发现了更高的丰富度。此外，在受干扰的单一栽培中，资源发现速度更快，但在未受干扰的保护林中，诱饵优势更高。凋落物异质性似乎在确定蚂蚁分散和种内通信方面发挥着重要作用，因为我们观察到森林简化加强了凋落物干扰影响。我们的结果突出了地面觅食蚂蚁作为干扰和栖息地质量的生物指标的效率。而且，