Impacts of rubber plantations on community assembly of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): a case study from monsoonal tropics of Xishuangbanna, southwest China

Alcantara, Mark Jun M.

NORTH-WESTERN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

2022

18

1

Nakamura, A

Rubber plantation has become one of the most dominant human-modified landscape features in continental Southeast Asia. Xishuangbanna, a monsoonal tropical region of southern Yunnan in China, is a hotspot of rubber cultivation and represents the northern margins of rubber expansion in Asia. Here, we compared the species richness, beta diversity patterns, and assemblage composition of ants from a rubber plantation and two forest types (alluvial and limestone forest) common in Xishuangbanna. We hypothesized that species richness is higher in forest habitats than the rubber plantation. Due to habitat similarities between the limestone forest and the rubber plantation (tree defoliation, dry condition, thinner soil), we hypothesized that ant assemblages in these habitats are similar, and beta diversity is driven by nestedness. We found the highest ant species richness in the alluvial forest, followed by the limestone forest and rubber plantation. Ant assemblages were similar between alluvial and limestone forests but different in the rubber plantation. Beta diversity estimation showed that beta diversity patterns were driven by species turnover in all three habitats. Our results showed that the rubber plantation was species-poor and harbored unique ant assemblages compared to forest habitats. Moreover, the assemblages in the rubber plantation were often dominated by numerically dominant and aggressive taxa. Our study highlights: biodiversity changes associated with forest conversion into monoculture rubber plantations; the conservation value of limestone forests, a common yet understudied forest type in Southeast Asia; and the importance of considering species identities when determining the impacts of habitat modification on ant diversity.