DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3876227
title: How does forest conversion and fragmentation affect ant communities and the ecosystem processes that they mediate?

description: <b>Description: </b>Data collected by Tom M. Fayle and Kalsum M. Yusah, Robert M. Ewers was the principal investigator<br>With the assistance of Oli Ashford, Emma Garnet, Imogen Ogilvie and Ed Turner<br>Uploaded by Michael J. W. Boyle<br>Data collected on SAFE sites in Benta and at Maliau between 29/06/2012 to 14/12/2011<br>Abundances are observations of numbers of ants entering a 12 cm by 14 cm plastic card, laid flat in the leaf litter, baited with 30 compressed dried earthworm pellets of a range of sizes over a 40 minute period<br>Collections were made from two of each of the triplets of first order sampling points. All triplets were visited, with the exception of the oil palm, logged forest and primary forest controls, where 2/3 of the triplets were visited.<br>Species were identified from vouchers, and vouchers were not collected for all species at all sites, hence the unidentified species (these can be used to calculate total ant abundance and species richness at a bait card, but not total species richness or anything involving trophic levels or sizes). 98% of ant individuals observed and 93% of ant occurrences had an associated voucher collected<br><br>There are six files that together contain all the ant bait removal data: ""ant attendance"", ""ant attendance summary"", ""bait locations"", ""bait removals"", ""ant IDs"" and ""morphospecies""<br><br>For ""ant attendence""<br>""Site"" refers to SAFE sampling site location<br>""Species"" refers to the ant species number within that site (ranges from 1 up to 2 or 3, occasionally more)<br>""Time.Period"" refers to the start time of the five minute period for which ant attendance at the bait was recorded.<br>""Abundance"" refers to the abundance within that five minute period.<br>Note that only non-zero abundances are recorded. For all time period*species*sites combinations not listed, the abundance is zero<br><br>For ""ant attendance summary""<br>""Site"" refers to SAFE sampling site location<br>""Date"" is date of field sampling<br>""Block"" is the SAFE sampling area<br>Columns then refer to morphospecies numbers (following identification in the lab), with entries being totals of ants entering the bait cards over the entire 40 minute period. This has been generated using the ""ant IDs"" in combination with the ""ant attendance"" data<br><br>For ""bait locations""<br>The rows relate to the ""Sheet number"" column in the ""bait removals"" file.<br>The columns relate to the thirty (5*6) bait locations on the bait card, specifically in relation to the numbers in the ""bait removals"" file.<br>The entries relate to the bait sizes, 1=0.125, 2=0.250, 3=0.500, 4=1.000<br><br>For ""bait removals""<br>There are a number of environmental and other card specific variables recorded, all should be self explanatory.<br>In addition, for each of the bait locations, there is the information of which ant species removed it and at what time (e.g. ""S1"" and ""T1"" for bait number 1), and also the first time of arrival of each species (on the entire bait card) and a brief description<br><br>For ""ant IDs""<br>""Identified.by"" is the person who identified the samples<br>""Order"" is the order the samples were processed in (can help with any error checking)<br>""Site"" refers to SAFE sampling site location<br>""Date"" is date of field sampling<br>""Block"" is the SAFE sampling area<br>""ant.sp.on.sheets"" refers to the ant species number WITHIN a dataset, i.e. it only goes up to 3 or 4 (corresponds to ""Species"" in file ""ant attendance"")<br>""sp.description"" field description of species, variably in Malay, English or latin, depending on who was observing<br>""Count"" number of individuals collected and identified<br>Then remaining columns are morphospecies numbers (see file ""morphospecies"") with entries in cells being the number of individuals collected and identified.<br><br>For ""morphospecies""<br>""Order for IDs"" is the order morphospecies were accumulated - was useful for error checking<br>""Morph. No"" the morphospecies number, corresponds to columns in ""ant attendance summary"" and ""ant IDs""<br>""Genus"" the genus of ant - note that the IDs were done a few years ago and taxonomy has not been updated<br>""Description"" description of morphospecies to help distinguish it from others in the same genus<br>""Weber's length (mm)"" Sizes as Weber's length, the maximum length of the ant alitrunk, measured using a graticule/binocular microscope and averaged from between 1 and 5 minor workers from each species<br>""Delta N"" trophic data - see below<br>""Notes"" noted cases where trophic data were from a different source<br>""N"" number of individuals measured for Weber's length (most commonly n=1)<br><br>Trophic data are enrichment levels of Nitrogen isotopes - higher values indicate that a species is more predatory, lower that it is more hebivorous. Most data are averages at the genus level from Woodcock et al. (2013) and Pfeiffer et al. (2013). For data from Woodcock et al (2013), a mean was taken for measurements from the two habitats - primary forest and logged forest. For genera represented in both studies (Woodcock and Pfeiffer), a mean was taken for the values from both<br>However, where there was no genus-level data available from these publications on litter ants, data were used from canopy samples from Davidson et al. (2003) and Bluthgen et al. (2003). Where this was done it is noted<br>For a few genera there are no trophic data at all.<br><br>Sources for trophic data<br>Blüthgen, N., G. Gebauer, and K. Fiedler. 2003. Disentangling a rainforest food web using stable isotopes: dietary diversity in a species-rich ant community. Oecologia 137:426-435.<br>Davidson, D. W., S. C. Cook, R. R. Snelling, and T. H. Chua. 2003. Explaining the abundance of ants in lowland tropical rainforest canopies. Science 300:969-972.<br>Pfeiffer, M., D. Mezger, and J. Dyckmans. 2013. Trophic ecology of tropical leaf litter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) – a stable isotope study in four types of Bornean rain forest. Myrmecological News 19:31-41.<br>Woodcock, P., D. P. Edwards, R. J. Newton, C. Vun Khen, S. H. Bottrell, and K. C. Hamer. 2013. Impacts of Intensive Logging on the Trophic Organisation of Ant Communities in a Biodiversity Hotspot. PLoS ONE 8:e60756."<b>Project: </b>This dataset was collected as part of the following SAFE research project: <b>How does forest conversion and fragmentation affect ant communities and the ecosystem processes that they mediate?</b><b>Funding: </b>These data were collected as part of research funded by: Sime Darby Foundation (Grant)This dataset is released under the CC-BY 4.0 licence, requiring that you cite the dataset in any outputs, but has the additional condition that you acknowledge the contribution of these funders in any outputs.<b>Permits: </b>These data were collected under permit from the following authorities:Sabah Biodiversity Centre (Research licence NA)<b>XML metadata: </b>GEMINI compliant metadata for this dataset is available here<b>Files: </b>This consists of 1 file: Ant_Bait_Removal_SAFE_database.xlsx<b>Ant_Bait_Removal_SAFE_database.xlsx</b>This file contains dataset metadata and 6 data tables:<b>Ant Attendance</b> (described in worksheet Ant_Attendance)Description: Ant AttendanceNumber of fields: 6Number of data rows: 8186Fields: <b>Order</b>: Order in which samples processed (Field type: numeric)<b>Site</b>: SAFE order point (Field type: numeric)<b>Location</b>: Location within the SAFE landscape (Field type: location)<b>Taxa</b>: refers to the ant species number within that site (ranges from 1 up to 2 or 3, occasionally more) (Field type: taxa)<b>Time_period</b>: refers to the start time of the five minute period for which ant attendance at the bait was recorded (Field type: numeric)<b>Abundance</b>: Abundance within selected 5 minute period (Field type: abundance)<b>Ant Attendance Summary</b> (described in worksheet Ant_Attendance_Summary)Description: Ant Attendance SummaryNumber of fields: 274Number of data rows: 332Fields: <b>SAFE_location</b>: Location within the SAFE landscape (Field type: location)<b>Date</b>: Date (Field type: date)<b>Block</b>: SAFE fragment (Field type: categorical)<b>sp_1</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_2</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_3</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_4</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_5</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_6</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_7</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_8</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_9</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_10</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_11</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_12</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_13</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_14</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_15</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_16</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_17</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_18</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_19</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_20</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_21</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_22</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_23</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_25</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_26</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_27</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_29</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_30</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_31</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_32</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_33</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_34</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_35</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_36</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_38</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_39</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_40</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_41</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_42</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_43</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_44</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_45</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_46</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_47</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_48</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_49</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_50</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_51</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_52</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_53</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_54</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_55</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_56</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_58</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_59</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_60</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_61</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_62</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_63</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_65</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_66</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_67</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_68</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_69</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_71</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_72</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_73</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_74</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_75</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_76</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_77</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_78</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_79</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_80</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_81</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_82</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_83</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_85</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_86</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_87</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_88</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_89</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_90</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_91</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_92</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_93</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_94</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_95</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_96</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_97</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_98</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_99</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_100</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospecies ID (Field type: abundance)<b>sp_101</b>: Total number of ants visiting card, column name refers to morphospe