Data from: Strong but taxon-specific responses of termites and wood-nesting ants to forest regeneration in Borneo

Land use change is accelerating globally at the expense of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Invertebrates are numerically dominant and functionally important in old growth tropical rain forests but highly susceptible to the adverse effects of forest degradation and fragmentation. Ants (Formicidae) and termites (Blattodea: Termitoidae) perform crucial ecosystem services. Here the potential effects of anthropogenic disturbance on ant and termite communities in dead wood are investigated. Community composition, generic richness and occupancy rates of ants and termites were compared among two old growth sites (Danum Valley and Maliau Basin) and one twice-logged site (the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems’ (SAFE) Project), in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Occupancy was measured as the number of ant or termite encounters (1) per deadwood items and (2) per deadwood volume, and acts as surrogates for relative abundance (or generic richness). Termites had a lower wood-occupancy per volume in logged forest. In contrast, there were more ant encounters, and more ant genera, in logged sites and there was a community shift (especially, there were more Crematogaster encounters). The disruption of soil and canopy structure in logged forest may reduce both termite and fungal decay rates, inducing increased deadwood residence times and therefore favouring ants that nest in dead wood. There is an anthropogenic-induced shift of dead wood in ants and termites in response to disturbance in tropical rainforests and the nature of that shift is taxon-specific; disturbance, necromass, occupancy, insects, responses, Termitoidae, Formicidae.全球土地利用变化正呈加速态势，却以牺牲生物多样性与生态系统功能为代价。无脊椎动物在原始热带老龄林中不仅个体数量占主导地位，且发挥关键生态功能，但它们极易受到森林退化与片段化带来的负面影响。蚂蚁（蚁科，Formicidae）与白蚁（蜚蠊目：白蚁下目，Blattodea: Termitoidae）能够提供至关重要的生态系统服务。本研究旨在探讨人为干扰对枯木生境中蚂蚁与白蚁群落的潜在影响。研究对比了马来西亚婆罗洲沙巴州的两处原始老龄林样地（达努谷Danum Valley与马里厄盆地Maliau Basin）与一处经两次采伐的样地（退化森林生态系统稳定性（SAFE）项目样地）内蚂蚁与白蚁的群落组成、属丰富度及占据率。占据率以蚂蚁或白蚁的发现频次量化：（1）每单位枯木个体的发现数，（2）每单位枯木体积的发现数，并作为相对多度（或属丰富度）的替代指标。采伐林内白蚁的单位体积枯木占据率更低。与之相反，采伐样地内的蚂蚁发现频次更高，蚂蚁属类丰富度也更高，且群落结构发生显著转变（尤其是举腹蚁属（Crematogaster）的发现频次明显提升）。采伐林内土壤与冠层结构遭到破坏，可能会降低白蚁与真菌的木质分解速率，进而延长枯木的留存时间，因此更利于在枯木中筑巢的蚂蚁种群存续。本研究证实，热带雨林受人为干扰后，枯木生境中的蚂蚁与白蚁群落会发生人为驱动的转变，且该转变具有类群特异性；关键词：干扰、枯木生物量（necromass）、占据率（occupancy）、昆虫、群落响应、白蚁下目、蚁科。