Protocols

PERMANOVA testing of volatile composition differences across species and years, with NMDS visualization of chemical dissimilarity patterns.

Collection of aphid honeydew on aluminum foil substrates followed by LC-MS/MS analysis to quantify sugar and amino acid composition as indicators of plant quality and ant-aphid mutualism benefits.

Calculation and statistical analysis of plant biomass allocation between vegetative and reproductive tissues using arcsin transformations and three-way ANOVA.

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of ant tissues to determine trophic position and dietary composition. Involves specimen preparation, drying, grinding, and mass spectrometry analysis.

Three dominance scores calculated for each species at each site where it occurred to assess competitive hierarchies.

Statistical analysis using subset of main data to assess repeatability of measurements.