The global ants database

Species traits are increasingly recognised as critical for understanding organisms, communities and ecosystems and their responses to global change.

The aim of Global Ants Database (GLAD) is to create a comprehensive web-based geo-referenced database on local-scale species assemblages and species traits in order to better understand the structure and function of species, assemblages and ecosystems and responses to global change.

The GLAD project was initiated at the International Union for the Study of Social Insects conference in 2006.

Initially, the GLAD covered only species richness and abundance data for entire assemblages, but it was expanded in 2010 to include data on species abundances from local assemblages and from 2011 to include data on species traits.

The GLAD database currently includes more than:

  • 82,910 trait values
  • 9,020 species
  • 4,484 georeferenced local assemblages of ants.

Team members

Project partners

  • Australian Research Council
  • La Trobe University