Tobias O. Bickel and Suparoek Watanasit

pp. 943 - 955

Abstract

Large areas of Southern Thailand's former natural rainforest have been replaced by rubber plantations. Despite the fact that rubber plantations dominate the landscape, little is known about its capacity to
sustain forest dwelling species. We used leaf litter ants as a bioindicator from two natural forests, a rubber
plantation forest and a completely cleared ruderal area in Southern Thailand, Songkla Province. There was
a substantial decline in ant diversity from the undisturbed forest towards the ruderal area along a gradient of
environmental disturbance. Additionally, there was a turnover in species composition between the different
habitats and an increase in arboreal species ″enhancing″ the sparse ground foraging ant community in the
plantation habitat. Also, alien tramp species replaced native species in the plantation and ruderal habitats.
This study shows that despite their forest like appearance rubber plantations are a poor habitat for native
leaf litter-inhabiting ants and unsuitable to sustain biodiversity in general. The changes in community
structure in the secondary forest showed the importance of primary forest habitat to maintain regional
biodiversity

Keywords

• diversity
• ant communities
• rubber plantation
• tropical rainforest
• southern Thailand
• leaf litter