DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcjp
title: Data from: Land-use intensification increases richness of native and exotic herbaceous plants, but not endemics, in Malagasy vanilla landscapes

description: Aim: North‐eastern Madagascar is a hotspot of plant diversity, but vanilla
 and rice farming are driving land‐use change, including slash‐and‐burn
 management. It still remains unknown how land‐use change and land‐use
 history affect richness and composition of endemic, native and exotic
 herbaceous plant species. Location: North‐eastern Madagascar. Methods: We
 assessed herbaceous plants along a land‐use intensification gradient
 ranging from unburned land‐use types (i.e. old‐growth forest, forest
 fragment and forest‐derived vanilla agroforest) to burned land‐use types
 (i.e. fallow‐derived vanilla agroforest, woody fallow and herbaceous
 fallow) and rice paddy. We compared land‐use types and analysed the
 effects of land‐use history, canopy closure and landscape forest cover on
 species richness. Additionally, we analysed species compositional changes
 across land‐use types. Results: Across 80 plots, we found 355 plant
 species (180 native non‐endemics, 57 exotics, 60 endemics and 58 species
 of unknown origin). Native and exotic species richness increased with
 increasing land‐use intensity, whereas endemics decreased. Unburned
 land‐use types had higher endemic species richness
 (4.28 ± 0.37 [mean ± SE]) than burned
 ones (2.4 ± 0.21). Exotic and native species richness,
 but not endemics, decreased with increasing canopy closure. Increasing
 landscape forest cover reduced exotic, but not native or endemic richness.
 Species composition of old‐growth forests was unique compared to all other
 land uses and forest‐derived, not fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests, had
 a similar endemic species composition to forest fragments. Main
 Conclusions: Our results indicate that old‐growth forests and forest
 fragments are indispensable for maintaining endemic herbaceous plants. We
 further show that the land‐use history of agroforests should be considered
 in conservation policy. In forest‐derived vanilla agroforests, management
 incentives are needed to halt loss of canopy closure, thereby maintaining
 or even enhancing endemics. In conclusion, considering species origin
 (endemic, native and exotic) and composition is essential for the
 identification of suitable management practices to avoid irreversible
 species loss.
description: 1) Species by site matrix of herbaceous plant species across the
 80 plots with their species names, family, growth form, species origin
 (endemic, native, exotic or unknown origin) and number of individuals
 (assessed using 8 subplots of 4 m² per plot) across seven land-use types
 in north-eastern Madagascar. 2) Plot characteristics
 (location, elevation, land-use history, canopy cover, landscape-scale
 forest cover). Methods are described in the
 paper: Raveloaritiana, E., Wurz, A., Grass, I., Osen,
 K., Soazafy, M. R., Martin, D. A., Faliniaina, L., Rakotomalala, N. H.,
 Vorontsova, M. S., Tscharntke, T., & Rakouth, B. (2021). Land-use
 intensification increases exotic and native herbaceous plants, but not
 endemics, within Malagasy vanilla landscapes. <strong>Diversity and
 Distributions 27: 784–798. doi:10.1111/ddi.13226.</strong>
description: No missing values. Plot coordinates
 (longitude/latitude) were reduced to three digits to protect the privacy
 of plot owners.