Plant invasion overrides drought in suppressing arthropod abundance and richness

Plant invasions and drought are global change stressors that alter plant availability and quality, habitat structure, and micro-site conditions, with likely cascading effects on arthropod diversity, yet few studies have disentangled their relative impacts. We quantified the effects of experimental plant invasion (by Imperata cylindrica, cogongrass) and simulated drought, imposed singly and in combination, on abundance and morphospecies richness of arthropod communities, functional groups, and individual taxa in regenerating longleaf pine understory located in humid, subtropical central Florida, USA. Across all three scales of organization, invasion emerged as a negative stressor, both alone and in combination with drought, while drought alone had mostly positive effects on arthropods. At the community scale, arthropod abundance and richness were 74% and 55% lower, respectively, in invaded than uninvaded plots (averaging over drought) two years after initiation of invasion, while drought..., , # Data from: Plant invasion overrides drought in suppressing arthropod abundance and richness

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.02v6wwqhz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.02v6wwqhz)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset quantifies the effects of experimental plant invasion (by *Imperata cylindrica*, cogongrass) and simulated drought, imposed singly and in combination, on abundance and morphospecies richness of arthropod communities, functional groups, and individual taxa in regenerating longleaf pine understory located in humid, subtropical central Florida (Gainesville), USA. The data represent the outcomes of a fully factorial common garden experiment in which plots were exposed to the following treatments: 1) total controls (no invasion, no drought), 2) invasion only, 3) drought only, and 4) invasion and drought together. The data were used to assess both the separate and interactive effects of these two stressors on local arthropod communities, including herbivores, p...,