The flow of aquatic nitrogen from ants to antlions on the Sturgeon Bay dunes

Abstract

In order to determine the effect of distance from the shoreline on nitrogen levels in terrestrial organisms living in a dune habitat, we quantified the nitrogen content of both ant and antlion species looking at the δ¹⁵N/¹⁴N ratio. We collected ants and antlions at Sturgeon Bay of Lake Michigan in Wilderness State Park, taking samples from ten different locations at varying distances between the tree line and the shoreline and measured the nitrogen levels found in all of the samples. Additional samples were collected from a terrestrial environment as well as algae samples collected from an aquatic environment which served as a base comparison standard for Nitrogen values. When looking at nitrogen values and distances from the shoreline we found no significant statistical correlation suggesting that further research may be needed in order to find a more significant correlation.