DOI: 10.5061/dryad.xd2547dtt
title: Data from: Tropical ant communities under agroforestry can be diverse but lack trait-and-environment associations

description: Human landuse often alters community composition that affects many related
 ecosystem functions. However, intermediate-intensity landuse, such as
 agroforestry, can be a refuge for biodiversity and can maintain ecosystem
 functions and services in working landscapes. We quantified how the alpha
 and beta diversity of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) vary with human
 landuse in the Kodagu region of the Western Ghats, India, across four
 landuse types (forests, forest fragments, and two types of coffee
 plantations with either native or non-native shade trees). We studied
 ants, as they perform a wide range of ecological functions such as
 predation, herbivory, seed dispersal, decomposition, etc. in such
 landscapes. We also assessed the functional diversity of ants and
 estimated the interactions between their traits and the environment. We
 found that the plantations, on average, had 26% lower species richness
 than forests and forest fragments, and functional richness was 31% lower
 in non-native plantations. However, plantations showed higher beta
 diversity than forests at both taxonomic and functional levels.
 Interestingly, turnover was higher in non-native than native plantations
 by 32% and 24% at taxonomic and functional levels, respectively.
 Plantations also had weak and few ants’ trait-and-environment
 interactions, suggesting that environmental filters may not be influential
 in structuring ant communities under human landuse, compared to forests.
 Overall, while ant communities under human landuse differ from that in
 forests, they can be heterogeneous and be able to perform similar
 functions. Our findings highlight the importance of agroforestry as
 working landscapes which can maintain biodiversity and ecosystem
 functions.
description: # Tropical ant communities under agroforestry can be diverse but lack
 trait-and-environment associations Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.xd2547dtt](10.5061/dryad.xd2547dtt) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Dryad_data.xlsx: contains the data on the
 abundances of ants found across land use. * **sp-site**: contains the
 species by site matrix of ant abundances across the four different land
 uses. * The column *landuse* indicates the landuse of the site- Forest
 (fr), Fragment (fg), Native shaded coffee (Native/ns), Non-native shaded
 coffee (Non-native/si).  * The column *Transect* indicates the transect
 number in the respective site. * The columns (D - DA) represent the
 species (refer to *sp-trait* of the data or S1 for the abbreviated species
 names) - **sp-trait**: contains the species by trait matrix of the species
 along with the species code and the scientific name. * The traits include
 Weber’s length, head length, eye width, scape length, femur length,
 spines, worker polymorphism, nest site, and diet. The trait values of head
 length, eye width, scape length, femur length were standardized for body
 size (Weber's length). Dummy scores (0/1) are used with an individual
 column for each category represent the six types of nest sites (hypogaeic,
 rocks, litter, wood, arboreal, and leaves) and seven types of diet
 (generalist, generalist-sugar feeder, generalist-seed harvester,
 generalist-predator, seed harvester, specialist-predator, honeydew) as
 these traits are not directional. * The head length, eye width, scape
 length and femur length's are relativized with the Weber's
 length (mm) and are dimensionless. - **site-environment**: site level
 environmental data collected at the time of collection * Environmental
 variables include - canopy cover (%), litter (weight in g), soil surface
 temperature (°C), soil-subsurface temperature (°C), and leaf litter
 temperature (°C), ambient air temperature (°C), humidity (%), soil
 moisture (1-10 scale) and soil pH. * NA values indicate missing
 information at the site