Chronic anthropogenic disturbance mediated the bottom-up effects of plant diversity on arthropods in tropical forests

Data for: Chronic anthropogenic disturbance mediated the bottom-up effects of plant diversity on arthropods in tropical forestsOrou G. Gaoue1,2,3,*, Hermann Bassoki2, and Anicet G. Dassou41Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA; 2Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, BP 123, Parakou, Benin; 3Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Sciences, University of Johannesburg, APK Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa. 4 National School of Biosciences and Applied Biotechnology (ENSBBA), National University of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, BP 14, Dassa, Benin. e-mail: [e-mail] of the study In this study, we used structural equation modeling to investigate how chronic anthropogenic disturbance can alter the bottom-up influence of plant diversity and abundance on arthropod diversity and abundance. We also investigated the implications for the top-down effect of arthropods communities in plant biomass via herbivory. We hypothesized that plant diversity would have a positive bottom-up effect on arthropods abundance and then diversity. We also hypothesized the diverse and abundant arthropods community will exert a top-down effect on the plant community as measured by increasing plant herbivory rates. We hypothesized that anthropogenic disturbance will decrease the diversity and abundance of arthropods and therefore reduce the top-down herbivory effect.This study was conducted in two climatic zones in northern Benin: the dry Sudanian zone (9°45’N and 12°25’N) and the moist Sudano-Guinean zone (7°30’N and 9°30’N). We sampled five sites in each zone. In each of the ten sites, we installed ten transects of 5m x 50m every 15m. These transects were established to survey all plant species and estimate species richness and diversity for each transect using the Chao 1 abundance-based estimator. The herbivory rate was estimated between 0% and 100% of leaf area lost and averaged at the plant and transect levels. On each individual plant, we sampled five leaves. To estimate arthropods abundance and diversity, we installed in each transect, pitfall traps, ceramic plates with bait, and used sweeping nets. We combined these three sampling methods to maximize the sampling effort considering the different behaviors and habitats of arthropods. Disturbance was estimated at each site considered tree pruning/debarking, fire and logging.We included the data file and the r script.Variablestransect: Transect number; 100 transects were ran at a rate of 10 transect per sitechao1p: Species richness for all arthropods estimated using the Chao 1 abundance-based estimator.disturbance: Site disturbance intensity; Sites were categorized as low, medium and high disturbance.herbivory: Plant herbivory rate; herbivory rate was estimated between 0% and 100% of leaf area lost and averaged at the plant and transect levels.site: study populations. 10 population were sampled. These were spatially independent sites. habitat: habitat type; this represents the type of vegetation in the site: gallery forest, dry forest, woodland. zone: this represent the climatic zone in which the study was conducted: the dry Sudanian zone (9°45’N and 12°25’N) and the moist Sudano-Guinean zone (7°30’N and 9°30’N).shannon_herb: Shannon diversity estimate for herbivore arthropods.abondance_herb: abundance estimate for herbivore arthropods.shannon_pred: Shannon diversity estimate for predatory arthropods.abondance_pred: abundance estimate for predatory arthropods.chao1_herb: Chao1 species richness for herbivore arthropods.chao1_pred: Chao1 species richness for predatory arthropods.chao1_arthropod: Chao1 species richness for predatory arthropods.shannon_arthropod: Shannon diversity estimate for all arthropods.abondance_arthropod: abundance estimate for predatory arthropods.