Canopy and litter ant assemblages share similar climate-species density relationships.
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.
Weiser
Michael D
MD
Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. mdweiser@ncsu.edu
Sanders
Nathan J
NJ
Agosti
Donat
D
Andersen
Alan N
AN
Ellison
Aaron M
AM
Fisher
Brian L
BL
Gibb
Heloise
H
Gotelli
Nicholas J
NJ
Gove
Aaron D
AD
Gross
Kevin
K
Guénard
Benoit
B
Janda
Milan
M
Kaspari
Michael
M
Lessard
Jean-Philippe
JP
Longino
John T
JT
Majer
Jonathan D
JD
Menke
Sean B
SB
McGlynn
Terrence P
TP
Parr
Catherine L
CL
Philpott
Stacy M
SM
Retana
Javier
J
Suarez
Andrew V
AV
Vasconcelos
Heraldo L
HL
Yanoviak
Stephen P
SP
Dunn
Robert R
RR
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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