Soil fertility and leaf traits drive insect herbivory variation across a tropical grassland-savanna-forest gradient

Understanding the interplay between plant functional traits and abiotic factors in shaping observed differences in herbivory across broad environmental gradients remains a central challenge in plant community ecology. We assessed the relative contributions of environmental factors, such as soil properties and nutrient availability, and leaf functional traits in governing insect herbivory levels across a megadiverse grassland-savanna-forest gradient. The dataset includes vegetation type, species name, growth form, herbivory and leaf traits for all plants studied.