Shade‐growing practices lessen the impact of coffee plantations on multiple dimensions of ant diversity

Abstract

Land use management influence changes in biodiversity beyond the targeted species. Management practices in coffee plantations have shifted from coffee growing below accompanying (shade) trees, to intensified monocultures in which coffee grows fully exposed to the sun. Anthropogenic disturbance causes changes in species composition relative to adjacent natural patches and reduces their biotic heterogeneity. Here, we assessed the impact of coffee plantation management practices on the taxonomical, phylogenetic and functional composition of ant communities, an ecologically dominant group and crucial biological pest controller in these agroecosystems. We hypothesized that shade‐grown coffee plantations would harbour ant communities similar to those of nearby forest patches, but dissimilar to those of intensified monocultures. We surveyed ant diversity in eight shade‐grown coffee farms, eight intensive coffee monocultures and eight forest patches. We used a combination of active and passive sampling methods over two field campaigns spanning 6 months. Our results support our hypothesis for all diversity dimensions. Additionally, ant communities in intensified monocultures were taxonomically and functionally, but not phylogenetically, more homogeneous than those found in forest patches and shade‐grown plantations. Synthesis and applications. Our findings support the idea that practices in shade‐grown coffee plantations buffer the impoverishment of multiple diversity dimensions after forest conversion. Additionally, we identified that leaf‐litter depth and number of twigs mitigate ant diversity loss which, in turn, can favour the presence of potential biocontrol agents. By assessing and integrating multiple biodiversity dimensions into management strategies, farmers and interested parties can minimize future biodiversity and ecosystem service loss.

Local coexistence of native and invasive ant species is associated with micro-spatial shifts in foraging activity

“…Shades are an omnipresent source of spatial and temporal microclimatic heterogeneity. Yet, their consequences on species' foraging activity, community structure and their potential role in the local coexistence of native and invasive species are understudied (Stahlschmidt and Johnson 2018;Ibarra-isassi et al 2021). This study is a first step towards understanding how shading conditions could mediate the local coexistence of native and invasive competitors and should stimulate future research to explore the effects of fine-scale environmental heterogeneity on native and invasive species coexistence and how these effects might change 395 across seasons or at other latitudes.…”

Community‐wide trait adaptation, but not plasticity, explains ant community structure in extreme environments

“…A larger number of within‐colony replicates could provide a more robust estimation of variance and perhaps affect the variance–environment relationship (Gaudard et al, 2019). Furthermore, colony‐level trait adaptation and plasticity along environmental gradients provides an interesting avenue for future research (Gibb et al, 2022; Ibarra‐Isassi et al, 2021; la Richelière et al, 2022).…”

Diversity begets diversity: Low resource heterogeneity reduces the diversity of nut‐nesting ants in rubber plantations

“…Moreover, the reductions in FD and PD in rubber plantation were lower than the null expectation based on random community assembly. These results imply functional and phylogenetic clustering in rubber plantation ant communities, suggesting that strong environmental filtering affects ant community assembly by filtering out ant species/lineages unable to survive in plantations (Liu et al ., 2016; Ibarra‐Isassi et al ., 2021). The eight species detected in rubber plantation represent a unique subset of species detected in rainforest belonging to only four genera: Brachyponera , Monomorium , Nylanderia , and Strumigenys .…”

“…Our results are consistent with previous findings indicating that limited nesting resources after the conversion of natural forest to monoculture plantations reduces ant abundance and TD (Armbrecht et al ., 2004; Philpott & Foster, 2005; Arenas‐Clavijo & Armbrecht, 2018; Ibarra‐Isassi et al ., 2021). Analysis of ant FD and PD indicated that the loss of species richness in rubber plantation was not random and that the simplified ant communities with limited nesting resources could have negative effects on ecosystem functioning.…”