Ants are among the most abundant and ecologically dominant animal groups in the majority of terrestrial ecosystems, in terms both of numbers of species and of individuals. In addition, ants are relatively taxonomically well known among invertebrate groups. This sytematic and ecological importance confers upon ants a high status among biodiversity indicator taxa. In leaf litter, there may be as many as 150 species of ants per hectare; this number is sufficient to allow for calculation of standard biodiversity measures. The ALL (Ants of the Leaf Litter) workshop, funded by this award from the Biotic Surveys & Inventories and International Programs of the NSF in cooperation with the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), the Species Suvival Commission of the World Conservation Union (SSC-IUCN) and other sources, will build a collaboration among 19 experts from all parts of the world (9 from the US) that will 1) optimize and standardize quantitative collecting techniques, 2) prioritize the tasks involved in cataloging and describing leaf litter ants, 3) formalize a comprehensive research agenda for the future, 4) set up a global network of leaf-litter samples in order to build a comparative database on the Internet, and 5) produce a handbook to assess the biological diversity of ants, especially leaf-litter ants. The workshop will be held in Brazil, and will be followed by a separately funded training course for local students, in which the protocols developed by the group of experts during the workshop will be immediately communicated. The protocols, handbook, and database that emerge from the workshop will be made available via the Internet.
