Data from: Decreasing predation rates and shifting predator compositions along a land-use gradient in Madagascar's vanilla landscapes

<p>1. Land-use change is the main driver of deforestation and land degradation resulting in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in north-eastern Madagascar. Vanilla, the region's main cash crop, is grown in agroforestry systems and may provide an opportunity for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.</p> <p>2. We used dummy caterpillars to assess predation rates and predator communities along a land-use gradient including unburned old-growth and forest fragments, herbaceous and woody fallows after shifting cultivation with fire usage, as well as rice paddies. The studied vanilla agroforests were either forest-derived or fallow-derived. Besides land-use type, we considered the effects of land-use history (unburned/burned), plot-level parameters and the landscape composition to conclude on management recommendations.</p> <p>3. Old-growth forest and forest fragments exhibited highest predation rates, which decreased with land-use intensity. Overall, predation was higher in unburned land-use types than in more open, previously burned habitats and rice paddies. High stem and vegetation densities were positively related to predation rates, but decreased with land-use intensity. High forest cover in the surrounding landscape led to higher predation rates, while local structural parameters remained more important.</p> <p>4. The predator community was arthropod-dominated across all land-use types with ants responsible for between 33 % and 69 % of all predation events. Overall predator composition in old-growth and forest fragments differed from all other land-use types. Predation by Gryllacrididae (Orthoptera) was lower in all land-use types, including forest-derived vanilla, than in old-growth forest and forest fragments, where they were important contributors to total predation. Vertebrate predation was low throughout.</p> Synthesis and applications: Forested habitats feature higher predation rates and different predator compositions than other land-use systems. Maintaining or restoring tree- and understory-rich vanilla agroforestry represents a viable tool in landscape conservation programmes as it has the potential to contribute to the conservation of predation as an important ecosystem function in both forest- and fallow-derived agroforests. However, vanilla agroforestry has limited value in conserving forest-specialised predator communities. While the establishment of tree-rich agroforests on former fallow land is favourable for conservation ecosystem functioning, further forest transformation should be <a>avoided</a>.