DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj769
title: Outer bounds: forest edges emulate vertical strata as a habitat filter for butterfly assemblages.

description: Understanding the patterns that arise from habitat filtering processes,
 whether natural or human-induced, is a crucial step in developing
 strategies for maintaining biodiversity. Tropical forests provide unique
 habitat conditions in vertical and horizontal dimensions, which
 consequently affect the composition of local assemblages. In this study,
 we examined the effect of forest fragmentation and vertical stratification
 on the phylogenetic and functional diversity of Atlantic Forest butterfly
 assemblages. We hypothesized that fragmentation positively selects
 butterfly lineages that are more tolerant to exposed habitats. Likewise,
 forest canopies would converge to a similar filtering effect since they
 represent a strong filter for the forest-dwelling species. We analyzed two
 distinct datasets separately and compared their effects through
 phylogenetic and functional approaches. We did not detect the effect of
 fragmentation on species composition, but it has affected lineages
 composition indirectly via functional traits. Forest vertical structure
 affected the butterfly assemblage composition, and we detected a
 phylogenetic signal at the community level, which implies a filtering of
 butterfly lineages. Phylogenetic diversity substantially decreased from
 understory to canopy. Butterfly assemblages from fragmented areas and
 canopies converged to lower body sizes and thorax volumes and presented
 lower functional diversity. Our results suggest that forest fragmentation
 and vertical strata have similar filtering effects on species and trait
 composition of assemblages. It also implies that human-induced processes
 represent a major threat to tropical butterfly diversity, especially for
 the lineages that inhabit the understory and continuous forests. The
 current dataset contains:  Species composition matrices from
 previously published studies: (Uehara-Prado et al. 2007) and (Santos et
 al. 2017) Species functional traits matrices
description: The methods used to collect the data are detailed in the
 materials and methods section of the article, and in Uehra-Prado et al.
 2007 and Santos et al. 2017.
description: # Outer bounds: forest edges emulate vertical strata as a habitat filter
 for butterfly assemblages Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj769](10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj769) ## Description of the
 data and file structure **Spp_matrix_Uehara-Prado et al. 2007**: Samplings
 were performed at four sites inside a continuous forest area (Morro Grande
 Reserve – 10,000 ha), and four forest fragments ranging from 30 to 175 ha.
 Five understory bait traps suspended 1.8 m above ground and at least 20 m
 apart from each other composed each sampling unit. Four SUs were placed in
 the continuous forest (Cont1, Cont2, Cont3, Cont4) and one SU in each
 fragment (Frag1, Frag2, Frag3, Frag4), totaling 40 traps. The total
 sampling effort was 32,000 trap-hours, considering 10 hours of effective
 sampling per day, from November 2001 to May 2002. **Spp_matrix_Santos et
 al. 2017**: Six sampling units consisted of ten traps 20 meters from each
 other and alternating between understory (1.5 m above the ground) and
 canopy (ca. 12 m above the ground were established (SUs were placed at
 least 600 m apart from each other), totaling 60 traps. The sampling effort
 totalized 28,000 trap-hours, considering 10 hours of effective sampling
 per day, from October 2011 to September 2012. **Trait_matrices**:
 Individuals from each species were measured through digital photographs
 using the tpsDig software. Each morphological trait was defined as the
 mean value of each trait measured from 3 to 5 male individuals. The
 following morphological traits and indexes were obtained for all
 fruit-feeding butterfly species: 1) Forewing length (mm), 2) Wing aspect
 ratio index, 3) Thorax volume index (mm³), and 4) Wing-Thorax ratio index
 (mm⁻¹). The **forewing length** was obtained by measuring the distance of
 the base of wing insertion until the apex in milimeters. The **wing aspect
 ratio index** was obtained from the ratio between the length and width of
 the forewing (mm). The **thorax volume** (mm³) was calculated by the
 following formula, considering it as an ellipsoid volume with a height
 equal to the width: tv = 4/3 π ×(Tw/2)^2×Tl/2, in which Tw is the thorax
 width and Tl is the thorax length. The **wing-thorax ratio** by dividing
 the squared forewing length by the thoracic volume to estimate species
 body allometry (mm⁻¹). ### Files and variables #### File:
 Spp\_matrix\_Uehara-Prado\_et\_al\_2007.csv **Description:** The methods
 used to collect the data are detailed in the materials and methods section
 of the article. The file has the species composition of each sampling
 unit. ##### Variables * Treatments: A column with sampling units,
 represented by four continuous areas from Morro Grande Reserve (Cont1,
 Cont2 , Cont3 , Cont4) and four forest fragments (Frag1, Frag2, Frag3,
 Frag4).  * The following columns have the abundance of each fruit-feeding
 butterfly species. #### File: Spp\_matrix\_Santos\_et\_al\_2017.csv
 **Description:** The methods used to collect the data are detailed in the
 materials and methods section of the article. The file has the species
 composition of each sampling unit. ##### Variables * Treatments: A column
 with sampling units representing the different vertical strata from six
 tansects located at Serra do Japi Reserve, canopy (D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6)
 and understory (SB1, SB2, SB3, SB4, SB5, SB6). * The following columns
 have the abundance of each fruit-feeding butterfly species. #### Files:
 Traits\_matrix\_Uehara-Prado\_et\_al\_2007.csv,
 Traits\_matrix\_Santos\_et\_al\_2017.csv **Description:** Matrices with
 functional traits measured for fruit-feeding butterfly species from each
 locality. The methods used to measure the traits and calculate the indexes
 are detailed in the materials and methods section of the article. #####
 Variables * Species: The name of butterfly species * Forewing_length (mm):
 The distance of the base of forewing body insertion until the apex. *
 Thorax_width (mm): Distance between left forewing insertion until right
 forewing insertion. * Thorax_length (mm): Distance from the head-thorax
 insertion until the thorax-abdomen insertion. * Wing_aspect_ratio: The
 ratio between the length and width of the forewing. * Thorax_volume
 (mm³): Calculated with a formula that consider it as an ellipsoid volume
 with a height equal to the width: tv = 4/3 π ×(Tw/2)^2×Tl/2 (Turlure et
 al., 2010), in which Tw is the thorax width and Tl is the thorax length. *
 Wing_thorax_ratio (mm⁻¹): Obtained by dividing the squared forewing length
 by the thoracic volume to estimate species body allometry (Graça et al.,
 2017). ## Code/software 1. LibreOffice 2. Google sheets 3. R software ##
 Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * None
 Data was derived from the following sources: * Scopus, Web of Science