Soil macrofauna communities vary by land use type and environmental conditions in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem

Soil macrofauna are useful indicators of soil health, given their low resistance to environmental stressors. The magnitude of such stressors varies by land use type and environmental conditions. Despite their ecological importance, soil macrofauna remain understudied in the Eastern Afrotropics. The greater Serengeti-Mara ecosystem (GSME) holds high conservation value and is experiencing acute environmental strain. Our study surveyed soil macrofauna communities across four habitat types: bush/forest, grassland, human use, and wetlands, following the Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility (TSBF) sampling protocol. We discuss the community structure and dynamics of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), termites (Insecta: Isoptera), and earthworms (Annelida: Oligochaeta) due to their relative abundance and biomass in soil communities and for their role as ecosystem service providers. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed the partitioning of habitat types by relative water resource availability as qua..., Study system
The Greater Serengeti-Mara ecosystem (GSME) straddles the Kenya-Tanzania border of East Africa (1◦15′-3◦30′S, 34–36◦E) (Fig. 1A) and hosts one of the most abundant ungulate populations in the world. The protected areas of the GSME form a large swath of unfenced land which facilitates the annual migration of 1.6 million ungulates (McNaughton, 1985). The edge conservancies of the GSME therefore represent the final stronghold buffering wildlife populations from the negative effects of rapid land-use intensification on the fringes of the core protected area (Newmark, 2008; Veldhuis et al., 2019). The GSME—approximately 25,000 km2 in area—is dominated by vast expanses of acacia savannah. Within our study area (1◦01′-1◦11′S, 35◦08′-35◦20′E) (Fig. 1B), the landscape is dominated by bush/forest and open grassland habitat types. The spatial ecology of the GSME is due in large part to its prevailing temperature and precipitation patterns. The study region has distinct wet and dry sea..., , # Data from: Soil macrofauna communities vary by land use type and environmental conditions in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcv8](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcv8)

## Description of the data and file structure

Presence and abundance data were collected for 14 soil macrofauna invertebrate taxa using the Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility (TSBF) hand-sorting method in Kenya's Maasai Mara. 

**Note**: Including location data will not pose any risk to endangered or vulnerable species in the ecosystem. 

### Files and variables

#### File: ANTS2.csv

**Description:**  filtered (ants observations only), cleaned dataset in long format with all environmental and site variables. Raw and transformed presence/abundance values and community (i.e., site-level diversity + richness indices) included.

##### Variables

* Area: Study area name abbreviation (Enonkishu Conservancy [ENO], Emarti township [EMA], Ol Choro Conservancy [OLC], Lemek Conservancy [LEM], N...,

土壤大型动物是土壤健康的优良指示生物，因其对环境胁迫因子的抗性较低。此类胁迫因子的强度随土地利用类型与环境条件的不同而变化。尽管土壤大型动物具有重要的生态价值，但在东非热带东部地区仍未得到充分研究。塞伦盖蒂-马拉大生态系统（Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem, GSME）具有极高的保护价值，且正面临严峻的环境压力。本研究遵循热带土壤生物学与肥力（Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility, TSBF）采样规范，对四种生境类型（灌丛/森林、草原、人类活动用地、湿地）中的土壤大型动物群落展开了调查。鉴于蚂蚁（膜翅目：蚁科）、白蚁（昆虫纲：等翅目）和蚯蚓（环节动物门：寡毛纲）在土壤群落中相对较高的丰度与生物量，且它们作为生态系统服务提供者发挥着重要作用，本研究重点讨论了这三类类群的群落结构与动态。冗余分析（Redundancy Analysis, RDA）结果显示，生境类型的分化主要由相对水资源可获得性驱动（原文此处截断）。
研究系统
塞伦盖蒂-马拉大生态系统（GSME）横跨东非肯尼亚与坦桑尼亚边境（南纬1°15′~3°30′，东经34°~36°）（图1A），拥有全球最为丰富的有蹄类种群之一。该生态系统的保护区形成了大片未围栏的土地，支撑着每年160万头有蹄类动物的迁徙活动（McNaughton, 1985）。因此，塞伦盖蒂-马拉大生态系统的边缘保护地成为了缓冲野生动物种群免受核心保护区周边快速土地利用集约化负面影响的最后一道重要屏障（Newmark, 2008; Veldhuis et al., 2019）。GSME总面积约25000平方千米，以广袤的金合欢稀树草原为主要景观。本研究的调查区域位于南纬1°01′~1°11′，东经35°08′~35°20′（图1B），该区域以灌丛/森林与开阔草原生境为主。塞伦盖蒂-马拉大生态系统的空间生态格局在很大程度上由当地的温度与降水模式决定，该研究区域具有显著的干湿季（原文此处截断）。
# 数据来源：塞伦盖蒂-马拉生态系统中土壤大型动物群落随土地利用类型与环境条件的变化
数据集DOI: [10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcv8](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcv8)

## 数据与文件结构说明
本研究采用热带土壤生物学与肥力（TSBF）手捡采样法，在肯尼亚马赛马拉地区采集了14类土壤大型无脊椎动物类群的出现与丰度数据。

**注意**：公开样地位置数据不会对该生态系统中的濒危或易危物种造成任何风险。

### 文件与变量
#### 文件：ANTS2.csv
**描述**：经过筛选（仅包含蚂蚁观测数据）的长格式清洁数据集，包含所有环境与样地变量，纳入了原始与经过转换的出现/丰度值，以及群落水平的多样性与丰富度指数。

##### 变量
* Area：研究区域名称缩写（恩农基舒保护地[ENO]、埃马蒂镇[EMA]、奥尔乔罗保护地[OLC]、莱梅克保护地[LEM]、N... 原文此处截断）