Release of tree species diversity follows loss of elephants from evergreen tropical forests

Little is known about the impacts of megaherbivores in closed-canopy tropical evergreen forests. We report on a decade of research on megaherbivore impacts in such forests in Gabon and Malaysia, comparing sites with (+) and without (-) elephants and documenting major differences in forest structure, tree species composition, and tree species diversity. In both regions, we compared sites supporting natural densities of elephants with otherwise undisturbed sites from which elephants had been absent for several decades. Elephant (+) sites supported low densities of seedlings and saplings relative to elephant (-) sites. In Lope National Park, Gabon, 88% of saplings and small trees (<20 cm dbh) were of species avoided by elephants, implicating forest elephants as powerful filters in tree recruitment. In Malaysia, Asian elephants showed strong preferences for monocots over dicots, as we found through both indirect and direct means. Loss of elephants from both Asian and African forests rele..., Datasets were collected from both direct elephant observations and indirect measurements of stems and past breaks (scars) from forest plots in Gabon and Malaysia, as well as forest plots measurements in Peru. , , # Data from: Release of tree species diversity follows loss of elephants from evergreen tropical forests\".

The dataset is collected from direct observations of elephant feeding and indirect observations through plot measurements from Gabon, Malaysia and Peru. It combines data from authors of the following studies for our comparative analysis:

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