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Description
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Ants are one of the most significant bioturbators and they are likely to be affected by the current worldwide increase in temperatures, hence there could be a cascading effect on their contributions to soil functioning. Data presented here correspond to an experimental work under controlled laboratory conditions, that aimed to investigate the effects of increased surface temperatures on ants’ nest architecture and its potential as extended plastic phenotype, and further consequences on bioturbation. Data include: 1) weekly excavated humid and dry soil, and water evaporation per column of soil. It includes: a) Identification of columns and weights of tubes at the start of the experiment, and b) humid excavated soil, dry excavated soil, actual weight of the column, calculated weight of the column (all in g), and calculated evaporated water in mL. 2) temperature on the surface of columns of soil where ants built their nests, per hour. Data include a) day and time, b) temperature in °C. 3) underground temperature of columns of soil where ants built their nests, every three hours. Data include a) day and time, b) temperature in °C. 4) nest morphological describers for each column of soil during four dates. Data were obtained from CT-scan images on DICOM format using a combination of Avizo and ImageJ softwares. It includes: a) unitless traits (sphericity, ellipse elevation, number of pores, Euler number, gamma, tortuosity); b) traits in mm (biggest ball radius, centroid Z, chamber thickness, tunnels thickness) ; c) traits in mm3 (total volume, tunnels volume, chambers volume, refilled volume); d) traits in percentage (tunnels volume, chambers volume, refilled volume). 5) profile of porosity of full nests in the column of soil. Data were obtained from the same CT-scan images and include slice (image) and its depth in mm, area of the pore and of the matrix in pixels, and percentage of pore area compared to total matrix area. 6) profile of porosity of refilled chambers in the column of soil. Data include slice (image) and its depth in mm, area of the refilled chamber and of the matrix in pixels, and percentage of refilled area compared to total matrix area. 7) number of workers during the experiment. Data includes number of individuals on days 0 and 100, number of new workers and percentage on new workers compared to the number of individuals at T100. 8) Size and weight of 10 ants per colony at the end of the experiment. Data include a) traits measured in mm: length of head, Weber’s length (i.e. thorax length), and total length (head + thorax length); b) dry weight measured in mg. Note that, due to methodological constraints, the size and the weight do not correspond to the same individual, and we included them on the same database to facilitate its analyses exclusively. (2023-09-27)
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