In contrast to species richness, ant com-
munity structure greatly differed between all land
use types, with differences most evident between
forests and agroforests on one hand, and the
monoculture plantations on the other. The direct
effects of the present habitat, such as differences
in available resources (food, shelter, potential
nesting sites), environmental conditions (temper-
ature, light), the open land phase of establishment
of monocultures, and indirect effects mediated
by a shift towards dominant, invasive species are
likely to explain these patterns. Ant communities
in BDNP oil palm plantations showed high simi-
larities among plots compared to other habitats
including oil palm in Harapan, which may be due
to the homogeneous understory vegetation in oil
palm plantations in the BDNP site.