Invasive alien species pose a serious threat to the integrity and function of natural ecosystems. Understanding how these invaders alter natural communities is therefore an important aspect in predicting the likely future outcomes of biological invasions. Many studies have documented the consequences of invasive alien species on native community structure, through the displacement and local extinction of native species. However, sampling methods and intensities are rarely standardised across such studies, meaning that it is not clear whether differences in response among native communities to the same invader species are due to biological differences between the invaded regions, or differences in the methodologies used. Here we use a matched sampling methodology to compare the effects of the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile Mayr) on native ant community assemblages in two distinct biogeographical regions that share similar ecologies: Girona (Spain) and Jonkershoek Nature Reserve (South Africa). We found a strong negative association between L. humile presence and native ant species richness within both geographic regions. However, the effects differed between the two study regions: in Girona, a single native ant species (Plagiolepis pygmaea) persisted in invaded sites; by contrast, substantially more native ant species persisted at invaded sites in Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. In addition, in Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, the abundance of certain native species appeared to increase in the presence of L. humile. This study therefore demonstrates the potential variable effects of an invasive species in contrasting locations within different biogeographical regions. Future work should explore the causes of this differential resistance among communities and expand standardised sampling approaches to more invaded zones to further explore how local biotic or abiotic conditions of a region determine the nature and extent of impact of L. humile invasion on native ant communities.

外来入侵物种对自然生态系统的完整性和功能构成了严重威胁。因此，了解这些入侵者如何改变自然群落是预测生物入侵可能的未来结果的重要方面。许多研究已经记录了外来入侵物种通过迁徙和本地物种灭绝对当地社区结构的影响。但是，在此类研究中，采样方法和强度很少标准化，这意味着不清楚本地社区对相同入侵物种的反应差异是由于入侵区域之间的生物学差异还是所用方法的差异。在这里，我们使用匹配的抽样方法来比较阿根廷蚂蚁（Linepithema humile Mayr（Linepithema humile Mayr）在两个具有相似生态的不同生物地理区域中的本地蚂蚁群落集合：赫罗纳（西班牙）和Jonkershoek自然保护区（南非）。我们发现在这两个地理区域内，L。humile的存在与本地蚂蚁物种丰富度之间存在强烈的负相关关系。但是，这两个研究区域之间的影响是不同的：在赫罗纳，一个单一的蚂蚁物种（Pygiolepis pygmaea）在入侵的地方持续存在。相比之下，在Jonkershoek自然保护区的入侵地点，仍然存在更多的本地蚂蚁物种。此外，在鸡场山自然保护区中，某些人种的丰富度似乎在存在人草（L. humile）的情况下增加了。。因此，这项研究证明了入侵物种在不同生物地理区域内不同位置的潜在可变作用。未来的工作应探讨社区之间这种差异性抗药性的原因，并将标准化的采样方法扩展到更受侵袭的地区，以进一步探索该地区的当地生物或非生物条件如何确定人种对本地蚂蚁群落的影响。