Butterflies and the spatiotemporal distribution of habitat: functional groups in the dynamics of communities in Madagascar’s dry forests

Abstract Habitat loss and land-use changes in tropical forests have significantly altered the structure and composition of natural ecosystems, contributing to a decline in biodiversity. By integrating diverse approaches that assess both species diversity and functional traits, a more comprehensive understanding of the ecological impacts of habitat transformation can be achieved. In this study, we aimed to assess how habitat structure and resource seasonality influence the abundance, richness, and composition of fruit-feeding butterflies across different forest amounts and productivity periods in Madagascar’s dry forests. We collected data on fruit-feeding butterflies and habitat variables (including density of tree-shrub, herbaceous cover, litter, and Enhanced vegetation index (EVI)) across nine 6 × 6 km landscapes with varying levels of forest cover. The data were grouped over three productivity periods (low, medium, and high) between 2023 and 2024. We recorded 5,997 individuals of 16 species across nine landscapes with varying levels of forest amount. Species occurrence was positively correlated with high productivity periods and extensive forest amounts, while species richness was higher during medium productivity. The variation in the space–time availability of resources has the most important variables: Enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and density of trees and shrubs. So, the communities have their dynamics related to productivity and habitat structure at different scales, vegetation and ecological processes are evidenced mainly in landscapes of low and high forest cover, strongly associated with the seasonality of the reserve. The species of butterflies to changes in the environment in different ways, being possible to observe the most accentuated effects in specific characteristics, where the productivity and structural complexity of microhabitats allow the alternation of species/functional groups throughout the year and landscapes.