Nest mounds of wood ants of the Formica rufa group are built using conifer needles, small branches, other plant materials and soil. Conifer needles contain several mono and sesquiterpenes. Thus, wood ant nests may act as terpene hotspots in conifer forest soils. Some of the terpenes show antifungal activity and may thus cause small-scale heterogeneity in fungal biomass. We compared terpene concentrations and fungal biomass (ergosterol concentration) of nest material of the wood ant Formica aquilonia from the top, core and basement of 14 nest mounds in eastern Finland. Overall, α-pinene, camphene, sabinene, β-pinene, myrcene, limonene, camphor and longifolene were detected the most and were commonly present in all the studied layers. We found that terpene concentrations differed between the sampled nest material layers, being generally highest in the core of the nest and lowest at the basement of the nest. There was no association between the terpene concentration and material moisture. Fungal biomass was highest in the top layer, intermediate in core and lowest in basement; however, it was not negatively associated with terpene concentrations. Fungal biomass in nest mounds was positively associated with moisture and alkalinity. Nest mounds of Formica rufa group wood ants are complex structures with different chemical and microbial properties among its layers.

在木蚂蚁巢丘红林蚁组使用针叶树针，小树枝，其它植物材料和泥土建造的。针叶树针含有几种单萜和倍半萜。因此，木蚁巢可能作为针叶林土壤中的萜烯热点。一些萜烯显示出抗真菌活性，因此可能会导致真菌生物量的小规模异质性。我们比较了木蚁Formica aquilonia巢材料的萜烯浓度和真菌生物量（麦角甾醇浓度）来自芬兰东部 14 个巢丘的顶部、核心和地下室。总体而言，α-蒎烯、蒎烯、槭烯、β-蒎烯、月桂烯、柠檬烯、樟脑和长叶烯被检测到最多，并且普遍存在于所有研究层中。我们发现，采样的巢材料层之间的萜烯浓度不同，通常在巢的核心最高，在巢的基底最低。萜烯浓度与材料水分之间没有关联。真菌生物量在顶层最高，核心居中，基底最低；然而，它与萜烯浓度没有负相关。巢丘中的真菌生物量与水分和碱度呈正相关。Formica rufa 的巢丘 木蚁群是复杂的结构，其层间具有不同的化学和微生物特性。