Data from: The role of tropical forest fragment vegetation in maintaining arthropod diversity and spillover to adjacent sugarcane fields

The degradation of forests in tropical agricultural landscapes has reduced
biodiversity and may negatively affect ecosystem services. However, the
role of forest fragments in the provision of ecosystem services for
agroecosystems, such as biological control, is still not well understood.
This study analyses the relationship between tree diversity and arthropod
communities in forest fragments and adjacent sugarcane fields around
Jaboticabal (São Paulo, Brazil) to evaluate the benefits of preserving
Atlantic Forest fragments. We tested the hypotheses: (1) arthropod
diversity and the abundance of key functional groups are favoured by tree
diversity, (2) diversity and abundance of these functional groups in
sugarcane fields depend on adjacent forests, and (3) the insect community
composition of forest fragments and sugarcane fields is similar due to
spillover effects. Arthropods were sampled in ten forest fragments over
two years (2020 and 2022) using traps (Malaise, yellow pan) and direct
tree sampling. We identified arthropods to morphospecies (2020) and family
level (2022) and associated families to functional groups. We found that
the quality of forest fragments, particularly tree species richness, was
positively related to forest arthropod richness and frequency (occupied
samples) of functional groups involved in ecosystem services such as
predators but also of phytophagous insects. There was also a strong
positive correlation between insect family richness and functional groups
of forest fragments and adjacent sugarcane fields, indicating potential
spillover and spatial connectivity between habitats. Although insect
community composition was significantly different between forest fragments
and sugarcane fields, NMDS ordination revealed partial overlap of family
communities, suggesting many shared taxa in both habitats. This study
highlights the importance of forest fragments in preserving insect
biodiversity and related ecosystem services in tropical agricultural
landscapes and advocates for the conservation and restoration of these
habitats. However, the benefits in terms of crop damage reduction and
yields remain to be confirmed.