Monthly monitoring of Azorean forest arthropods testing for edge effects (Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal)

Abstract

The data we present consists in an inventory of arthropods collected in three areas of a native forest fragment at Terra-Brava protected area (Terceira, Azores, Portugal): (i) in the edge of the forest, closer to pasturelands; (ii) in the deepest and pristine part of the native fragment (more than 500 m from edge); (iii) and in an intermediate area (150 from edge), in order to test the edge effect on Azorean arthropod community. The study was carried out between June 2014 and December 2015, in Terceira Island (Azores). A total of nine passive flight interception SLAM traps were deployed, during 18 consecutive months, collecting monthly the arthropods belonging to Arachnida, Diplopoda, Chilopoda and Insecta Classes. This publication provides new information about Azorean arthropods communities across gradients of temporal and edge effect variation