Data from: Reciprocal facilitation between large herbivores and ants in a semi-arid grassland

While positive interactions have been well documented in plant and sessile
benthic marine communities, their role in structuring mobile animal
communities and underlying mechanisms has been less explored. Using field
removal experiments, we demonstrated that a large vertebrate herbivore
(cattle; Bos tarurs) and a much smaller invertebrate (ants; Lasius spp.),
the two dominant animal taxa in a semi-arid grassland in Northeast China,
facilitate each other. Cattle grazing led to higher ant mound abundance
compared to ungrazed sites, while the presence of ant mounds increased the
foraging of cattle during the peak of the growing season. Mechanistically,
these reciprocal positive effects were driven by habitat amelioration and
resource (food) enhancement by cattle and ants (respectively). Cattle
facilitated ants, likely by decreasing plant litter accumulation by
herbivory and trampling, allowing more light to reach the soil surface
leading to microclimatic conditions that favor ants. Ants facilitated
cattle likely by increasing soil nutrients via bioturbation, increasing
food (plant) biomass and quality (N content) for cattle. Our study
demonstrates reciprocal facilitative interactions between two animal
species from phylogenetically very distant taxa. Such reciprocal positive
interactions may be more common in animal communities than so far assumed,
and they should receive more attention to improve our understanding of
species coexistence and animal community assembly.