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Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau

Terrestrial animal communities are largely shaped by vegetation and climate. With climate also shaping vegetation, can we attribute animal patterns solely to climate? Our study observes ant community changes along climatic gradients (i.e., elevational gradients) within different habitat types (i.e.,...

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Autores principales: Uhey, Derek A., Hofstetter, Richard W., Remke, Michael, Vissa, Sneha, Haubensak, Karen A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7417256/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32788981
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6538
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author Uhey, Derek A.
Hofstetter, Richard W.
Remke, Michael
Vissa, Sneha
Haubensak, Karen A.
author_facet Uhey, Derek A.
Hofstetter, Richard W.
Remke, Michael
Vissa, Sneha
Haubensak, Karen A.
author_sort Uhey, Derek A.
collection PubMed
description Terrestrial animal communities are largely shaped by vegetation and climate. With climate also shaping vegetation, can we attribute animal patterns solely to climate? Our study observes ant community changes along climatic gradients (i.e., elevational gradients) within different habitat types (i.e., open and forest) on the Colorado Plateau in the southwestern United States. We sampled ants and vegetation along two elevational gradients spanning 1,132 m with average annual temperature and precipitation differences of 5.7°C and 645mm, respectively. We used regression analyses and structural equation modeling to compare the explanatory powers and effect sizes of climate and vegetation variables on ants. Climate variables had the strongest correlations and the largest effect sizes on ant communities, while vegetation composition, richness, and primary productivity had relatively small effects. Precipitation was the strongest predictor for most ant community metrics. Ant richness and abundance had a negative relationship with precipitation in forested habitats, and positive in open habitats. Our results show strong direct climate effects on ants with little or no effects of vegetation composition or primary productivity, but contrasting patterns between vegetation type (i.e., forested vs. open) with precipitation. This indicates vegetation structure can modulate climate responses of ant communities. Our study demonstrates climate‐animal relationships may vary among vegetation types which can impact both findings from elevational studies and how communities will react to changes in climate.
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spelling pubmed-74172562020-08-11 Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau Uhey, Derek A. Hofstetter, Richard W. Remke, Michael Vissa, Sneha Haubensak, Karen A. Ecol Evol Original Research Terrestrial animal communities are largely shaped by vegetation and climate. With climate also shaping vegetation, can we attribute animal patterns solely to climate? Our study observes ant community changes along climatic gradients (i.e., elevational gradients) within different habitat types (i.e., open and forest) on the Colorado Plateau in the southwestern United States. We sampled ants and vegetation along two elevational gradients spanning 1,132 m with average annual temperature and precipitation differences of 5.7°C and 645mm, respectively. We used regression analyses and structural equation modeling to compare the explanatory powers and effect sizes of climate and vegetation variables on ants. Climate variables had the strongest correlations and the largest effect sizes on ant communities, while vegetation composition, richness, and primary productivity had relatively small effects. Precipitation was the strongest predictor for most ant community metrics. Ant richness and abundance had a negative relationship with precipitation in forested habitats, and positive in open habitats. Our results show strong direct climate effects on ants with little or no effects of vegetation composition or primary productivity, but contrasting patterns between vegetation type (i.e., forested vs. open) with precipitation. This indicates vegetation structure can modulate climate responses of ant communities. Our study demonstrates climate‐animal relationships may vary among vegetation types which can impact both findings from elevational studies and how communities will react to changes in climate. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2020-07-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7417256/ /pubmed/32788981 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6538 Text en © 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Uhey, Derek A.
Hofstetter, Richard W.
Remke, Michael
Vissa, Sneha
Haubensak, Karen A.
Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau
title Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau
title_full Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau
title_fullStr Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau
title_full_unstemmed Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau
title_short Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau
title_sort climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the colorado plateau
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7417256/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32788981
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6538
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