Outer bounds: forest edges emulate vertical strata as a habitat filter for butterfly assemblages.
Data files
May 29, 2025 version files 18.67 KB
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README.md
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Spp_matrix_Santos_et_al_2017.csv
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Spp_matrix_Uehara-Prado_et_al_2007.csv
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Traits_matrix_Santos_et_al_2017.csv
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Traits_matrix_Uehara-Prado_et_al_2007.csv
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Abstract
Understanding the patterns that arise from habitat filtering processes, whether natural or human-induced, is a crucial step in developing strategies for maintaining biodiversity. Tropical forests provide unique habitat conditions in vertical and horizontal dimensions, which consequently affect the composition of local assemblages. In this study, we examined the effect of forest fragmentation and vertical stratification on the phylogenetic and functional diversity of Atlantic Forest butterfly assemblages. We hypothesized that fragmentation positively selects butterfly lineages that are more tolerant to exposed habitats. Likewise, forest canopies would converge to a similar filtering effect since they represent a strong filter for the forest-dwelling species. We analyzed two distinct datasets separately and compared their effects through phylogenetic and functional approaches. We did not detect the effect of fragmentation on species composition, but it has affected lineages composition indirectly via functional traits. Forest vertical structure affected the butterfly assemblage composition, and we detected a phylogenetic signal at the community level, which implies a filtering of butterfly lineages. Phylogenetic diversity substantially decreased from understory to canopy. Butterfly assemblages from fragmented areas and canopies converged to lower body sizes and thorax volumes and presented lower functional diversity. Our results suggest that forest fragmentation and vertical strata have similar filtering effects on species and trait composition of assemblages. It also implies that human-induced processes represent a major threat to tropical butterfly diversity, especially for the lineages that inhabit the understory and continuous forests.
The current dataset contains:
- Species composition matrices from previously published studies: (Uehara-Prado et al. 2007) and (Santos et al. 2017)
- Species functional traits matrices
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f4qrfj769
Description of the data and file structure
Spp_matrix_Uehara-Prado et al. 2007: Samplings were performed at four sites inside a continuous forest area (Morro Grande Reserve – 10,000 ha), and four forest fragments ranging from 30 to 175 ha. Five understory bait traps suspended 1.8 m above ground and at least 20 m apart from each other composed each sampling unit. Four SUs were placed in the continuous forest (Cont1, Cont2, Cont3, Cont4) and one SU in each fragment (Frag1, Frag2, Frag3, Frag4), totaling 40 traps. The total sampling effort was 32,000 trap-hours, considering 10 hours of effective sampling per day, from November 2001 to May 2002.
Spp_matrix_Santos et al. 2017: Six sampling units consisted of ten traps 20 meters from each other and alternating between understory (1.5 m above the ground) and canopy (ca. 12 m above the ground were established (SUs were placed at least 600 m apart from each other), totaling 60 traps. The sampling effort totalized 28,000 trap-hours, considering 10 hours of effective sampling per day, from October 2011 to September 2012.
Trait_matrices: Individuals from each species were measured through digital photographs using the tpsDig software. Each morphological trait was defined as the mean value of each trait measured from 3 to 5 male individuals. The following morphological traits and indexes were obtained for all fruit-feeding butterfly species: 1) Forewing length (mm), 2) Wing aspect ratio index, 3) Thorax volume index (mm³), and 4) Wing-Thorax ratio index (mm⁻¹). The forewing length was obtained by measuring the distance of the base of wing insertion until the apex in milimeters. The wing aspect ratio index was obtained from the ratio between the length and width of the forewing (mm). The thorax volume (mm³) was calculated by the following formula, considering it as an ellipsoid volume with a height equal to the width: tv = 4/3 π ×(Tw/2)^2×Tl/2, in which Tw is the thorax width and Tl is the thorax length. The wing-thorax ratio by dividing the squared forewing length by the thoracic volume to estimate species body allometry (mm⁻¹).
Files and variables
File: Spp_matrix_Uehara-Prado_et_al_2007.csv
Description: The methods used to collect the data are detailed in the materials and methods section of the article. The file has the species composition of each sampling unit.
Variables
- Treatments: A column with sampling units, represented by four continuous areas from Morro Grande Reserve (Cont1, Cont2 , Cont3 , Cont4) and four forest fragments (Frag1, Frag2, Frag3, Frag4).
- The following columns have the abundance of each fruit-feeding butterfly species.
File: Spp_matrix_Santos_et_al_2017.csv
Description: The methods used to collect the data are detailed in the materials and methods section of the article. The file has the species composition of each sampling unit.
Variables
- Treatments: A column with sampling units representing the different vertical strata from six tansects located at Serra do Japi Reserve, canopy (D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6) and understory (SB1, SB2, SB3, SB4, SB5, SB6).
- The following columns have the abundance of each fruit-feeding butterfly species.
Files: Traits_matrix_Uehara-Prado_et_al_2007.csv, Traits_matrix_Santos_et_al_2017.csv
Description: Matrices with functional traits measured for fruit-feeding butterfly species from each locality. The methods used to measure the traits and calculate the indexes are detailed in the materials and methods section of the article.
Variables
- Species: The name of butterfly species
- Forewing_length (mm): The distance of the base of forewing body insertion until the apex.
- Thorax_width (mm): Distance between left forewing insertion until right forewing insertion.
- Thorax_length (mm): Distance from the head-thorax insertion until the thorax-abdomen insertion.
- Wing_aspect_ratio: The ratio between the length and width of the forewing.
- Thorax_volume (mm³): Calculated with a formula that consider it as an ellipsoid volume with a height equal to the width: tv = 4/3 π ×(Tw/2)^2×Tl/2 (Turlure et al., 2010), in which Tw is the thorax width and Tl is the thorax length.
- Wing_thorax_ratio (mm⁻¹): Obtained by dividing the squared forewing length by the thoracic volume to estimate species body allometry (Graça et al., 2017).
Code/software
- LibreOffice
- Google sheets
- R software
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- None
Data was derived from the following sources:
- Scopus, Web of Science
The methods used to collect the data are detailed in the materials and methods section of the article, and in Uehra-Prado et al. 2007 and Santos et al. 2017.