DOI: 10.5061/dryad.92n4m
title: Data from: Plant, herbivore and parasitoid community composition in native Nothofagaceae forests vs. exotic pine plantations

description: 1.Converting natural areas into land used for production causes dramatic
 changes in the configuration of landscapes. Both the loss and
 fragmentation of native habitats contribute to biodiversity loss worldwide
 and the consequent creation of artificial edges can have a significant
 influence on community assembly. The conservation value of plantation
 forests has been identified for specific species, but it is not clear
 whether exotic pine plantations can also be used for the preservation of
 native communities in general. 2.We studied whether community composition
 of different trophic levels (plants, herbivorous caterpillars,
 parasitoids) changed across native Nothofagaceae forests to exotic pine
 plantations, and whether habitat edges affected communities differently
 depending on the forest type considered. To accomplish this, we sampled
 plants, herbivorous caterpillars and parasitoids in native Nothofagaceae
 and exotic pine plantation forests and compared community composition of
 each trophic level across habitats. 3.We found that community composition
 of plants, herbivorous caterpillars and parasitoids differed significantly
 between native and exotic plantation forests, and that variation in the
 composition of the upper trophic levels was strongly dependent on
 variation in the composition of the lower trophic level. Moreover,
 differences in community composition were mostly the result of species
 turnover, suggesting that plantations are complementary habitats for some
 species, but cannot be a substitute habitat for all native forest species.
 Furthermore, edge effects had a strong impact on the composition of native
 communities, such that certain species were only present in the interior
 of the native habitat. 4.Synthesis and applications. Large areas of native
 vegetation, where the interior remains intact, are essential to preserve
 species that are susceptible to edge effects and that cannot occupy other
 habitat types. Creating straight instead of winding edges could decrease
 the impact that plantations have on native forests. Furthermore,
 increasing the representativeness of native plant communities in exotic
 plantation forests would cascade up to higher consumer trophic levels,
 considerably increasing the conservation value of these commercial stands.
description: Community composition
 and species interactionsThe file contains the
 plant (g of leaf dry mass sampled), herbivore (number of individuals
 sampled) and parasitoid (number of individuals sampled) composition of
 native and exotic forests. Also, the plant-herbivore and the
 herbivore-parasitoid interactions sampled across all sampling sites.
 Sampling was conducted in eight sites (New Zealand), each of them formed
 by native Nothofagaceae forest adjacent to exotic Pinus radiata plantation
 forest. Each forest type within a site was considered a plot, and we
 sampled at the edge and interior of each forest type (i.e.
 subplots).plant_herb_parasitoid_spp_composition_and_interactions.xlsx