Epigeal arthropods in small-scale oil palm plantations of Central America driven by landscape-scale habitat disturbance

With anthropogenic pressures driving global biodiversity declines, there is an urgent need to better understand how agricultural practices shape species communities. This study evaluated the potential benefits of diversified oil palm plantations on biodiversity by comparing epigeal arthropod (EA) communities in the oil palm monoculture and polyculture field sites of the Experimental African Palm Laboratory (LAPA) project in southwest Costa Rica. EA were sampled using pitfall traps to assess the effects of cropping system (monoculture vs. polyculture), landscape-scale habitat disturbance, sampling session (dry vs. rainy season), and site-specific soil characteristics on arthropod diversity. Specimens were sorted to order level, with Coleoptera further sorted to species to detect potential taxon-specific responses. General additive mixed models indicated higher EA diversity in oil palm monocultures, with a similar, non-significant trend observed for Coleoptera, and diversity of both EA an..., , # Data from: Epigeal arthropods in small-scale oil palm plantations of Central America driven by landscape-scale habitat disturbance

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.1vhhmgr84](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1vhhmgr84)

## Description of the data and file structure

**(1) data_iNext.csv**

Excel file including the epigeal arthropod abundance matrix for use in biodiversity analysis (iNext).
Description of column and row names of the abundance matrix:

*-Row names:* Scientific names of identified arthropod orders.

*-Column names:* Unique codes referring to the sampling units which includes a combination of (i) sampling session (S1 = sampling session 1, S2 = sampling session 2, S3 = sampling session 3, S4 = sampling session 4), (ii) sampling site (CO = Coto 63, LG = La Guaria, PB = Piedras Blancas, CH = Chacarita, SA = Salama, RQ = Rancho Quemado, BA = Banegas, LP = La Palma), and (iii) type of cropping system (M = monoculture, P = polyculture).

**(2) data_models.csv:**

Excel file including ..., ,