Epigeal arthropods in small‐scale oil palm plantations of Central America driven by landscape‐scale habitat disturbance

Abstract With anthropogenic pressures driving global biodiversity declines, there is an urgent need to better understand how agricultural practices shape species communities. This study evaluated the potential benefits of diversified oil palm plantations on biodiversity by comparing epigeal arthropod (EA) communities in the oil palm monoculture and polyculture field sites of the Experimental African Palm Laboratory (LAPA) project in southwest Costa Rica. EA were sampled using pitfall traps to assess the effects of cropping system (monoculture vs. polyculture), landscape‐scale habitat disturbance, sampling session (dry vs. rainy season) and site‐specific soil characteristics on arthropod diversity. Specimens were sorted to order level, with Coleoptera further sorted to species to detect potential taxon‐specific responses. General additive mixed models indicated higher EA diversity in oil palm monocultures, with a similar, non‐significant trend observed for Coleoptera and diversity of both EA and Coleoptera was higher in the dry season. Interestingly, landscape‐scale habitat disturbance negatively affected EA and Coleoptera diversity in monocultures. This finding suggests that, in smallholder oil palm plantations, maintaining landscape integrity can support arthropod diversity and that polyculture practices may buffer the impacts of landscape‐scale habitat disturbance at the patch level. Given the limitations associated with pitfall trapping and coarse taxonomic resolution, we recommend future research to employ complementary sampling methods and time‐ and cost‐effective sorting techniques to further explore the patterns observed in our study.