Despite its negative impacts on the environment and biodiversity, tree plantations can contribute to biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes, as they harbor many native species. In this study, we investigated the impact of Eucalyptus plantations on the taxonomic and functional diversity of ant communities, comparing ant communities sampled in managed and unmanaged (abandoned for 28 years) Eucalyptus plantations, and native Atlantic rain forests. Eucalyptus plantations, both managed and unmanaged, reduced the functional diversity and increased the similarity between ant communities leading to functional homogenization. While communities in managed plantations had the lowest values of both taxonomic and functional ant diversities, ant communities from unmanaged plantations had similar values of species richness, functional redundancy and Rao's Q compared to ant communities from forest patches (although functional richness was lower). In addition, communities in unmanaged Eucalyptus plantations were taxonomically and functionally more similar to communities located in managed plantations, indicating that Eucalyptus plantations have a severe long-term impact on ant communities. These results indicate that natural regeneration may mitigate the impact of Eucalyptus management, particularly regarding the functional structure of the community (α diversity), although it does not attenuate the effects of long term homogenization in community composition (β diversity).

Departament of Environmental Science Federal University of São Carlos UFSCar Rod Washigton Luís Km 235 São Carlos SP Brazil

Department of Botany Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia Branišovská 31 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu Lai 40 Tartu 51005 Estonia

Laboratório de Mirmecologia do Alto Tietê Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes UMC Avenida Dr Cândido Xavier de Almeida Souza 200 Centro Cívico Mogi das Cruzes São Paulo Brazil

Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Coordenação de Ciências da Terra e Ecologia Av Perimetral 1901 CEP 66077 830 Belém PA Brazil

Spatial Ecology and Conservation lab São Paulo State University UNESP Ecology Department Avenida 24 A 1515 Bela Vista Rio Claro São Paulo Brazil

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