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 favoring 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 rain forests and the nature of that shift is taxon-specific.

全球土地利用变化正加速推进，却以生物多样性与生态系统服务功能为代价。无脊椎动物在原生老龄热带雨林中不仅数量占优，且发挥着关键生态功能，但同时对森林退化与片段化带来的负面影响极为敏感。蚂蚁（Formicidae）与白蚁（Blattodea: Termitoidae）可提供至关重要的生态系统服务。本研究针对人为干扰对热带雨林枯木中蚂蚁与白蚁群落的潜在影响展开探究。研究对比了两处原始林样地（达农谷（Danum Valley）与马廖盆地（Maliau Basin））以及一处经两次采伐的样地——马来西亚婆罗洲沙巴州的"改变森林生态系统稳定性（SAFE）项目"样地中，蚂蚁与白蚁的群落组成、属丰富度及占据率。占据率以两种方式量化：一是每单位枯木个体的蚂蚁或白蚁遇见次数，二是每单位枯木体积的遇见次数，以此作为相对丰度（或属丰富度）的替代指标。在采伐林中，白蚁的单位体积枯木占据率更低。相较而言，采伐样地中的蚂蚁遇见次数更多，蚂蚁属数也更高，且群落结构发生转变——尤其是举腹蚁属（Crematogaster）的遇见次数显著增加。采伐林内土壤与冠层结构的破坏，可能同时降低白蚁与真菌的分解速率，延长枯木的留存时间，进而更利于在枯木中筑巢的蚂蚁生存。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诱导的转变，且该转变的特征具有类群特异性。