Data from: A tale of scale: plot but not neighbourhood tree diversity increases leaf litter ant diversity

1. Diversity of producers (e.g. plants) usually increases the diversity of
associated organisms, but the scale (i.e. the spatial area of plant
diversity considered) at which plant diversity acts on other taxa has
rarely been studied. Most evidence for cross-taxon diversity relations
come from aboveground consumers that directly interact with plants. 2.
Experimental tests of plant diversity effects on elusive organisms
inhabiting the leaf litter layer, which are important for nutrient cycling
and decomposition, are rare. 3. Using a large tree diversity experiment,
we tested whether tree diversity at the larger plot (i.e. community) or
the smaller neighbourhood scale relates to the abundance, species
richness, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of leaf litter ants,
which are dominant organisms in brown food webs. 4. Contrary to our
expectations of scale-independent positive tree diversity effects, ant
diversity increased only with plot but not neighbourhood tree diversity.
While the exact causal mechanisms are unclear, nest relocation or
small-scale competition among ants may explain the stronger tree diversity
effects at the plot scale. 5. Our results indicate that even for small and
less mobile organisms in the leaf litter, effects of tree diversity are
stronger at relatively larger scales. The finding emphasize the importance
of diverse forest stands, in which mixing of tree species is not
restricted to small patches, for supporting arthropod diversity in the
leaf litter.

Data for Skarbek et al.,
A tale of scale...The dataset is described
in the 'Readme' spreadsheet of the data file.Dataset for Skarbek et al., A
tale of scale....xlsx