Abstract Ants are known to provide valuable ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, including oil palm plantations. Their communities are less diverse and more uneven in oil palm compared with forest, and this may increase their vulnerability to disturbance. This study quantifies ant communities in oil palm agroforestry and experimentally tests their robustness to a common-practice high-disturbance management intervention: removing understory vegetation. Fieldwork was based at the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Understory Vegetation Project in Sumatra, Indonesia, where three treatments varying in their degree of understory vegetation management were established in 2014: (1) widespread herbicide was applied removing all understory vegetation (Reduced); (2) herbicide was applied to the harvesting paths and circles, and other vegetation was allowed to grow (Normal – control); (3) no herbicide was applied (Enhanced). We measured ground-foraging ant communities before and after the treatments were implemented, using pitfall traps over 324 trap-nights (a trap-night is one trap set for one night). We investigated how ant abundance, species richness, species evenness, beta diversity, and community composition differed between the treatments. We found 3507 ants across 68 species or morphospecies. Seven of these were highly abundant and accounted for 78% of individuals. Post-treatment ant abundance was lower in the reduced treatment (mean per plot: 84) than in the normal (159) and enhanced (131) treatments, which did not differ from each other. Species richness, species evenness, beta diversity and community composition were not affected by the vegetation treatments. We recommend that oil palm growers maintain understory vegetation in oil palm plantations to support ground-foraging ants. Though not tested here, this may also improve ant-mediated ecosystem services, such as pest control, seed dispersal, nutrient redistribution, and the maintenance of soil health. This study demonstrates that enhancing habitat complexity through management practices can support biodiversity in monocrop landscapes.

中文翻译：

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去除油棕农林业中的林下植被会降低地面觅食蚂蚁的丰度，但不会降低物种的丰富度

摘要 众所周知，蚂蚁可以在包括油棕种植园在内的农业景观中提供有价值的生态系统服务。与森林相比，他们的社区在油棕中的多样性较少且更加不均衡，这可能会增加他们对干扰的脆弱性。这项研究量化了油棕农林业中的蚂蚁群落，并通过实验测试了它们对常见的高干扰管理干预措施的稳健性：去除林下植被。实地调查基于印度尼西亚苏门答腊的热带农业生物多样性和生态系统功能 (BEFTA) 林下植被项目，其中在 2014 年建立了三种不同程度的林下植被管理措施：(1) 广泛施用除草剂去除所有林下植被(减少); (2)在采伐路径和采伐圈施除草剂，允许其他植被生长（正常-对照）；(3) 不使用除草剂（增强型）。我们在实施处理之前和之后测量了地面觅食蚂蚁群落，使用陷阱陷阱超过 324 个陷阱之夜（陷阱之夜是一个陷阱设置一晚）。我们调查了蚂蚁丰度、物种丰富度、物种均匀度、β 多样性和群落组成在不同处理之间的差异。我们在 68 个物种或形态种中发现了 3507 只蚂蚁。其中 7 个高度丰富，占个体的 78%。处理后蚂蚁丰度在减少处理中（每块地平均值：84）低于正常处理（159）和增强处理（131），两者没有区别。物种丰富度、物种均匀度、Beta 多样性和群落组成不受植被处理的影响。我们建议油棕种植者维护油棕种植园的林下植被，以支持在地面觅食的蚂蚁。虽然这里没有进行测试，但这也可以改善蚂蚁介导的生态系统服务，例如害虫控制、种子传播、养分再分配和土壤健康的维护。这项研究表明，通过管理实践提高栖息地的复杂性可以支持单一作物景观中的生物多样性。以及保持土壤健康。这项研究表明，通过管理实践提高栖息地的复杂性可以支持单一作物景观中的生物多样性。以及保持土壤健康。这项研究表明，通过管理实践提高栖息地的复杂性可以支持单一作物景观中的生物多样性。