LONG-TERM IMPACTS OF FOREST FRAGMENTATION AND LAND USE CHANGE ON ANT COMMUNITY IN TROPICAL FOREST IN SABAH, MALAYSIA
Abstract
Tropical rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth, yet they are increasingly threatened by human activities such as deforestation, logging, and agricultural expansion. A major consequence of these disturbances is forest fragmentation, which disrupts habitat structure, reduces landscape connectivity, and alters species assemblages. Ants as ecological importance and sensitivity to environmental changes, are effective bioindicators for assessing biodiversity responses to such disturbances. This study investigates the long-term impacts of forest fragmentation and land-use change on ant communities in the Bornean tropical rainforest. Ant assemblages were sampled across three time points, pre fragmentation (2011), four years after (2015), and eight years after (2019) in forest fragments of varying sizes (1-ha, 10-ha, and 100-ha), matrix habitats, logged forest, oil palm plantations, and old-growth forest, representing a gradient of land-use intensity. Canopy ants were collected using insecticidal fogging, while leaf-litter ants were sampled via Winkler extraction. In total, 106,084 individual ants from 72 genera were recorded across all sampling years. Results revealed a significant decline in canopy ant abundance over time, particularly by 2019, indicating strong negative impacts of fragmentation on arboreal ant communities. In contrast, leaf-litter ant abundance increased in disturbed habitats suggesting a degree of resilience or adaptability among ground-dwelling taxa. Notably, the genus Plagiolepis was more prevalent in fragmented forests, whereas oil palm plantations harbored the most depauperate ant assemblages. These findings demonstrate contrasting responses between canopy and leaf-litter ants to habitat disturbance over time, importance of incorporating both vertical strata and long-term monitoring into biodiversity assessments.
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