Data from: Disentangling the factors that shape bromeliad and ant communities in the canopies of cocoa agroforestry and preserved Atlantic Forest

In tropical forest canopies, host tree characteristics shape epiphyte communities, and both host tree characteristics and epiphytes determine invertebrate communities, e.g., ants. Tree height is among the factors most often mentioned as a strong predictor for both bromeliad and ant communities. However, many factors interact dynamically in shaping the tree-bromeliad-ant association. Here, we investigated the effects of the host tree and canopy structural characteristics on both bromeliads and ants. We sampled bromeliads on 180 trees and ants in 360 bromeliads living on a subset of 60 of those trees in a continuum of native forest fragments and agroforestry systems in the Atlantic Forest, a Brazilian biodiversity hotspot. We found that the host trees’ crown area had a positive effect on the abundance of bromeliads. Also, the introduced tree species had higher abundance of bromeliads than native tree species. Moreover, we found that the ant species composition was different between native and introduced trees. In addition, we observed a positive effect of the size of bromeliads and tree crown height on ant species richness on both bromeliad and tree scales, but there was no effect of tree height. Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of trees with large crowns for the maintenance of bromeliads, which are also associated with richer ant communities in both Atlantic Forest and agroforestry systems. These results emphasize the importance of trees with larger crowns for biodiversity conservation in both native forest fragments and agroforestry systems.在热带林冠层中，宿主树木的性状塑造附生植物（epiphyte）群落，而宿主树木性状与附生植物二者共同决定无脊椎动物（invertebrate）群落（如蚂蚁）。树高是被最常提及的、对凤梨科植物（bromeliad）与蚂蚁群落均具有显著预测作用的因子之一。然而，诸多因子以动态互作的方式调控着树-凤梨科植物-蚂蚁的互作关联。本研究探讨了宿主树木与林冠结构性状对凤梨科植物及蚂蚁的影响。我们在巴西生物多样性热点（biodiversity hotspot）区域大西洋森林的原生林片段与农林复合系统（agroforestry）组成的连续梯度样地中，对180株树木上的凤梨科植物进行了采样，并在其中60株宿主树木所附生的360株凤梨科植物中采集了蚂蚁样本。研究发现，宿主树木的冠幅面积对凤梨科植物的丰度具有正向影响。此外，外来树种上的凤梨科植物丰度显著高于本土树种。进一步研究表明，本土树种与外来树种上的蚂蚁物种组成存在显著差异。此外，我们观测到，在凤梨科植物尺度与宿主树木尺度下，凤梨科植物体型与树木冠高均对蚂蚁物种丰富度具有正向影响，但树高并未表现出显著效应。综合来看，本研究结果凸显了大冠幅树木对维持凤梨科植物种群的重要性，而这类树木在大西洋森林与农林复合系统中均与物种更丰富的蚂蚁群落相关联。本研究结果同时强调，在原生林片段与农林复合系统中，大冠幅树木对于生物多样性保护均具有重要意义。