uid=HFR,o=lter,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all public read doi:10.6073/pasta/2af7c0c33699001472180e395ea7c881 Israel Del Toro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3901-8713 Aaron Ellison https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4151-6081 Rogerio Silva 2023 English

Aims--Climatic change is expected to rearrange species assemblages and ultimately affect organism-mediated ecosystem processes. We focus on identifying patterns and relationships between common ant species (representing 99% of total ant records) richness and functional diversity; modelling how these patterns may change at local and regional scales in future climatic conditions; and interpreting how these changes might influence ant-mediated ecosystem processes. Location--Forested ecosystems of eastern North America. Methods--We used a previously published dataset to evaluate functional diversity at 67 sites in the eastern U.S. and quantified 14 taxonomic, morphometric and natural history traits for 70 common ant species in the region. We used functional diversity metrics, functional groups and species distribution modelling methods to address our aims. We used stacked species distribution models and stacked functional group models to predict species assemblages and functional richness at the 67 sites and at a regional scale for current and future climatic conditions. Results--Species richness and functional diversity are positively correlated throughout the region. Under future climate scenarios, species richness and functional group richness were predicted to decrease in southern ecoregions and increase in northern ecoregions. This may be due to increased thermal stress for species in the southern extent of their ranges and increased habitat suitability in the northern ecoregions. Decomposers, arthropod community regulators and seed dispersers are forecast to be the most threatened ant functional groups. Main Conclusions--Climate change will likely lead to major changes in ant species richness and functional group richness in the forests of the north-eastern United States, and this may substantially alter ant-mediated ecosystem processes and services.

Morphological variation in co-occurring species often is used to infer species assembly rules and other processes structuring ecological assemblages. We compared the morphological structure of ant assemblages in two biogeographic regions along two extensive latitudinal gradients to examine common patterns and unique characteristics of trait distribution. We sampled ant assemblages along extensive latitudinal gradients in Tropical Atlantic Forest in eastern Brazil and temperate forests in the eastern United States. We quantified 14 morphological traits related to the ecology and life history of each of 599 ant species and defined the morphological space occupied by different ant assemblages. Null models were used to test whether tropical and temperate ant assemblages differed from random expectation in morphological structure. Correlations between traits and climate were used to infer associations between habitat characteristics and morphological space occupied by ant assemblages. Tropical ant assemblages had higher morphological diversity and variation in the space of occupied morphospace, whereas temperate assemblages had higher variance in size. Although tropical ant assemblages had smaller morphological distances among species, species packing (i.e., mean nearest-neighbor distance) did not differ between regions. Null model analysis revealed scant evidence of habitat filtering or niche differentiation within assemblages. Different traits had different means, variances, skewness, and kurtosis values along each environmental gradient. Mean trait values within assemblages were associated mainly with region and correlated with temperature but trait variances had more complex responses to climate, including interactions between temperature and precipitation in the models. The higher functional diversity in tropical ant assemblages occurs by expansion of the morphospace rather than through an increase in species packing. Different traits vary independently along environmental gradients. Analysis of individual traits together with categorization of the moments of trait distributions (statistical central tendencies) provide new directions for quantifying morphological diversity in ant assemblages.

ants biodiversity climate change communities distribution diversity morphology LTER controlled vocabulary populations LTER core area Harvard Forest HFR LTER USA HFR default

This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0.html CC0-1.0 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/exist/apps/datasets/showData.html?id=hf219 Eastern North America, Eastern South America. Coordinates based on WGS84 datum. -80.3025 -67.4820 +46.9648 +37.1649 6 1020 meter 2010 2010 family Formicidae complete Information Manager Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 hf-im@lists.fas.harvard.edu Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 (978) 724-3595 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu

Sixty-seven sites were selected across 10 degrees of latitude in the northeastern United States. Sites were distributed across five ecoregions (1) Atlantic Highlands, (2) Mixed Wood Plains, (3) Southeastern U.S. Plains, (4) Ozark-Oachita-Appalachian Forests and, (5) Southeastern Coastal Plains. At each site, one transect was located in a forested area and one in an adjacent open area. Forested areas were dominated by various overstory species, whereas open transects lacked overstory vegetation and tipically had herbaceous and grassy understory vegetation. Nineteen continuous morphometric measures were selected to describe species traits. Traits were selected because they had shown ecologically relevant associations with ant ecology. For each ant measured, standard linear measurements were taken using an ocular micrometer mounted on a dissecting microscope, accurate to 0.01 mm.

Ant assemblages were sampled along extensive latitudinal gradients in Tropical Atlantic Forest in eastern Brazil and temperate forests in the eastern United States. Fourteen morphological traits related to the ecology and life history of each of 599 ant species were quantified and defined the morphological space occupied by different ant assemblages.

Harvard Forest

324 North Main Street Petersham MA 01366 USA

(978) 724-3302 (978) 724-3595 https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu https://ror.org/059cpzx98 pointOfContact The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210. hf219-01-ant-metrics.csv ant metrics hf219-01-ant-metrics.csv 111837 faf39473f001404216198f74fdbb4ba1 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p21/hf219/hf219-01-ant-metrics.csv species species name species name NA missing value code six letter code indicating species (first three letters of Genus and first three letters of species) species code NA missing value country country where specimen was collected country where specimen was collected NA missing value state state where specimen was collected state where specimen was collected NA missing value site.name site where specimen was collected when information was available site where specimen was collected when information was available NA not available sample vial number or unique identifier for pinned specimens when available vial number or unique identifier for pinned specimens when available NA missing value date date on which specimen was collected YYYY-MM-DD NA missing value lat latitude where specimen was collected degree 0.00000001 real NA missing value long longitude where specimen was collected degree 0.00000001 real NA missing value elev elevation where specimen was collected meter 1 integer NA missing value contributor.year indicates who took the measurements and the year indicates who took the measurements and the year NA missing value stereo stereo microscope used for measurements Leica Leica Mycrosystems MZ75 Zeiss Zeiss NA missing value mag indicates magnification strength for variables (if 50x or 5.0x, mulitiply value by 0.01 mm; if 6x or 0.63x, multiply value by 0.08 mm) magnification strength NA missing value hl head length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value hw head width millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value mw mandible width millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value ml mandible length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value cl clypeus length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value el eye length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value id interocular distance millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value dem distance of the eye to the mandible insertion millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value sl scape length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value prw pronotum width millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value wl Weber's length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value fl hind femur length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value pl petiole length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value ph petiole height millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value pw petiole width millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value ppl post-petiole length millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value pph post-petiole height millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value ppw post-petiole width millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value gw gaster width (first segment) millimeter 0.1 real NA missing value 582 hf219-02-site-summary.csv ant species richness and functional diversity hf219-02-site-summary.csv 7306 41f3a7b5d792fd5a5abd9f05b3ce9fd8 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p21/hf219/hf219-02-site-summary.csv site abbreviated site code abbreviated site code NA missing value eve functional diversity evenness number 0.000000001 real NA missing value div Fdiv value calculated in R package "FD" number 0.000000001 real NA missing value dis Fdis value calculated in R package "FD" number 0.000000001 real NA missing value rao Rao’s quadratic entropy (Q) is computed from the uncorrected species-species distance matrix number 0.000000001 real NA missing value s.sdm.richness total number of species richness predicted by stacked sdms number 1 natural NA missing value obs.richness total number of unique species observed at a site number 1 natural NA missing value fgr total number of unique functional groups observed at a site number 1 natural NA missing value s.fgm total number of functional group richness predicted by ssdms number 1 natural NA missing value group1.richness number of species observed in functional group 1 number 1 whole NA missing value group2.richness number of species observed in functional group 2 number 1 whole NA missing value group3.richness number of species observed in functional group 3 number 1 whole NA missing value group4.richness number of species observed in functional group 4 number 1 whole NA missing value group5.richness number of species observed in functional group 5 number 1 whole NA missing value group6.richness number of species observed in functional group 6 number 1 whole NA missing value group7.richness number of species observed in functional group 7 number 1 whole NA missing value group8.richness number of species observed in functional group 8 number 1 whole NA missing value group9.richness number of species observed in functional group 9 number 1 whole NA missing value group10.richness number of species observed in functional group 10 number 1 whole NA missing value longitude longitude of site in decimal degrees degree 0.0001 real NA missing value latitude latitude of site in decimal degrees degree 0.0001 real NA missing value elevation elevation of site in meters above sea level meter 1 natural NA missing value 67 hf219-03-fd-traits.csv traits of ants collected at the study sites hf219-03-fd-traits.csv 8118 bde811f5b68a8c979d675a0615401705 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p21/hf219/hf219-03-fd-traits.csv species abbreviated species code name abbreviated species code name NA missing value subfamily subfamily of the species subfamily of the species NA missing value genus genus of the species genus of the species NA missing value hl head length millimeter 0.000000001 real NA missing value rel relative eye length millimeter 0.000000001 real NA missing value rll relative leg length millimeter 0.000000001 real NA missing value colony.size colony size Small fewer than 100 workers Medium 100-1000 workers Large 1000-5000 workers Very Large more than 5000 workers feeding.preference feeding preference (based on Ellison et al., 2012) feeding preference (based on Ellison et al., 2012) NA missing value nest.substrate nest substrate nest substrate NA missing value primary.habitat primary habitat primary habitat NA missing value secondary.habitat secondary habitat secondary habitat NA missing value seed.disperser whether or not a seed dispersing species N no Y yes NA missing value slavemaker.sp whether or not a slave making species N no Y yes NA missing value behavior behavioral ranking of the species based on Gotelli et al, 2010 behavioral ranking of the species based on Gotelli et al, 2010 NA missing value biogeographic.affinity biogeographic affinity widespread distributed throughout the entire extent of the study region cold climate distributed only in the northern extent of the study region warm climate distributed only in the southern extent of the study region NA missing value 70 hf219-04-abundance.csv species abundance hf219-04-abundance.csv 393666 6808bbc2715183b8b11578d86a6ad82b 1 \r\n column , https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p21/hf219/hf219-04-abundance.csv site pitfall trap at site (site codes listed in hf219-02-site-summary.csv) pitfall trap at site (site codes listed in hf219-02-site-summary.csv) NA missing value ambpal whether or not the species Stigmatomma pallipes was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present aphful whether or not the species Aphaenogaster fulva was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present aphpic whether or not the species Aphaenogaster picea was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present aphrud whether or not the species Aphaenogaster rudis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present aphten whether or not the species Aphaenogaster tennesseensis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present aphtre whether or not the species Aphaenogaster treate was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present bradep whether or not the species Brachymyrmex depilis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camame whether or not the species Camponotus americanus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camcas whether or not the species Camponotus castaenus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camchr whether or not the species Camponotus chromaoides was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camher whether or not the species Camponotus herculenus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camnea whether or not the species Camponotus nearctica was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camnov whether or not the species Camponotus novaeboracensis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present campen whether or not the species Camponotus pennsylvanicus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present camsub whether or not the species Camponotus subbarbatus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present crecer whether or not the species Crematogaster cerasi was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present crelin whether or not the species Crematogaster lineolata was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present dolmar whether or not the species Dolichoderus mariae was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present dolpla whether or not the species Dolichoderus plagiatus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present doltas whether or not the species Dolichoderus taschenbergi was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forarg whether or not the species Formica argentea was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forase whether or not the species Formica aserva was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present fordif whether or not the species Formica dificilis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present fordol whether or not the species Formica dolosa was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forexc whether or not the species Formica exscetoides was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forgla whether or not the species Formica glacialis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forinc whether or not the species Formica incerta was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forint whether or not the species Formica integra was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forlas whether or not the species Formica lasioides was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forneo1 whether or not the species Formica neoniger was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forobs whether or not the species Formica obscuriventris was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forpal whether or not the species Formica palidefulva was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forque whether or not the species Formica querquetulana was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forsub1 whether or not the species Formica subaenescens was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forsub2 whether or not the species Formica subintegra was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present forsub3 whether or not the species Formica subsericea was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lasali whether or not the species Lasius alienus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lasfla whether or not the species Lasius flavipes was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lasnea whether or not the species Lasius nearcticus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lasneo whether or not the species Lasius neoniger was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present laspal whether or not the species Lasius palipes was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lasspe whether or not the species Lasius speculiventris was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lassub whether or not the species Lasius subumbratus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present lasumb whether or not the species Lasius umbratus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present monema whether or not the species Monomorium emarginatum was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present monvir whether or not the species Monomorium viridae was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrame1 whether or not the species Myrmica americana was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrame2 whether or not the species Myrmicina americanus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrdet whether or not the species Myrmica detritinodis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrfra whether or not the species Myrmica fracticornis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrinc whether or not the species Myrmica incompleta was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrlob whether or not the species Myrmica lobifrons was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrpun whether or not the species Myrmica punctiventris was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present myrscu whether or not the species Myrmica sculptilis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present nylpar whether or not the species Nylanderia parvula was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present phepil whether or not the species Pheidole pelifera was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present ponpen whether or not the species Ponera pennsylvanica was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present preimp whether or not the species Prenolepis imparis was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present solmol whether or not the species Solenopsis molesta was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present soltex whether or not the species Solenopsis texana was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present stebre whether or not the species Stenamma brevicorne was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present stedie whether or not the species Stenamma diecki was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present steimp whether or not the species Stenamma impar was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present stesch whether or not the species Stenamma schmittii was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present tapses whether or not the species Tapinoma sesile was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present temamb whether or not the species Temnothorax ambigus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present temcur whether or not the species Temnothorax curvispinosus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present temlon whether or not the species Temnothorax longispinosus was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present temsch whether or not the species Temnothorax schmitti was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present tetcae whether or not the species Tetramorium caespitum was collected in the pitfall trap 0 absent 1 present 2680 hf219-05-functional-diversity-analyses.txt Harvard Forest hardwood plot layout hf219-05-functional-diversity-analyses.txt 23195 981fc22cffc8ba89b0fc7c26c9af6d61 none R script https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/data/p21/hf219/hf219-05-functional-diversity-analyses.txt script biodiversity regional short-term measurement