title: Canopy and litter ant assemblages share similar climate-species density relationships.
abstract: Tropical forest canopies house most of the globe's diversity, yet little is known about global patterns and drivers of canopy diversity. Here, we present models of ant species density, using climate, abundance and habitat (i.e. canopy versus litter) as predictors. Ant species density is positively associated with temperature and precipitation, and negatively (or non-significantly) associated with two metrics of seasonality, precipitation seasonality and temperature range. Ant species density was significantly higher in canopy samples, but this difference disappeared once abundance was considered. Thus, apparent differences in species density between canopy and litter samples are probably owing to differences in abundance-diversity relationships, and not differences in climate-diversity relationships. Thus, it appears that canopy and litter ant assemblages share a common abundance-diversity relationship influenced by similar but not identical climatic drivers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. mdweiser@ncsu.edu
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Weiser
authors.forename: Nathan J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: Donat
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Agosti
authors.forename: Alan N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Aaron M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ellison
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Heloise
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gibb
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Gotelli
authors.forename: Aaron D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Gove
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guénard
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janda
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaspari
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Lessard
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Longino
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Majer
authors.forename: Sean B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Menke
authors.forename: Terrence P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: McGlynn
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Parr
authors.forename: Stacy M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Philpott
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Retana
authors.forename: Andrew V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Suarez
authors.forename: Heraldo L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Yanoviak
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D016014:Linear Models; D008954:Models, Biological; D011156:Population Density; D013045:Species Specificity; D014197:Trees; D014329:Tropical Climate; D014887:Weather
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