Climate mediates the effects of disturbance on ant assemblage structure

Many studies have focused on the impacts of climate change on biological assemblages, yet little is known about howclimate interacts with other major anthropogenic influences on biodiversity, such as habitat disturbance. Using a unique global database of 1128 local ant assemblages, we examined whether climate mediates the effects of habitat disturbance on assemblage structure at a global scale. Species richness and evenness were associated positively with temperature, and negatively with disturbance. However, the interaction among temperature, precipitation and disturbance shaped species richness and evenness. The effectwas manifested through a failure of species richness to increase substantially with temperature in transformed habitats at low precipitation. At low precipitation levels, evenness increased with temperature in undisturbed sites, peaked at medium temperatures in disturbed sites and remained low in transformed sites. In warmer climates with lower rainfall, the effects of increasing disturbance on species richness and evenness were akin to decreases in temperature of up to 98C. Anthropogenic disturbance and ongoing climate change may interact in complicated ways to shape the structure of assemblages, with hot, arid environments likely to be at greatest risk. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved

Data from: Habitat disturbance selects against both small and large species across varying climates

Global extinction drivers, including habitat disturbance and climate change, are thought to affect larger species more than smaller species. However, it is unclear if such drivers interact to affect assemblage body size distributions. We asked how these two key global change drivers differentially affect the interspecific size distributions of ants, one of the most abundant and ubiquitous animal groups on earth. We also asked whether there is evidence of synergistic interactions and whether effects are related to species’ trophic roles. We generated a global dataset on ant body size from 333 local ant assemblages collected by the authors across a broad range of climates and in disturbed and undisturbed habitats. We used head length (range: 0.22 – 4.55 mm) as a surrogate of body size and classified species to trophic groups. We used generalized linear models to test whether body size distributions changed with climate and disturbance, independent of species richness. Our analysis yielded three key results: 1) climate and disturbance showed independent associations with body size; 2) assemblages included more small species in warmer climates and fewer large species in wet climates; and 3) both the largest and smallest species were absent from disturbed ecosystems, with predators most affected in both cases. Our results indicate that temperature, precipitation and disturbance have differing effects on the body size distributions of local communities, with no evidence of synergistic interactions. Further, both large and small predators may be vulnerable to global change, particularly through habitat disturbance

GlobalAnts: a new database on the geography of ant traits (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

1. In recent years the focus in ecology has shifted from species to a greater emphasis on functional traits. In tandem with this shift, a number of trait databases have been developed covering a range of taxa. Here, we introduce the GlobalAnts database. 2. Globally, ants are dominant, diverse and provide a range of ecosystem functions. The database represents a significant tool for ecology in that it (i)contributes to a global archive of ant traits (morphology, ecology and life history) which complements existing ant databases and (ii) promotes a trait-based approach in ant and other insect ecology through a broad set of standardised traits. 3. The GlobalAnts database is unique in that it represents the largest online database of functional traits with associated georeferenced assemblage-level data (abundance and/or occupancy) for any animal group with 9056 ant species and morphospecies records for entire local assemblages across 4416 sites. 4. We describe the structure of the database, types of traits included and present a summary of data coverage. The value of the database is demonstrated through an initial examination of trait distributions across subfamilies, continents and biomes. 5. Striking biogeographic differences in ant traits are highlighted which raise intriguing questions as to the mechanisms generating them

Gibb et al Ecography - Data

Data from 371 locations showing whole assemblage ant body size, including min, max, mean, variance and percentiles from 10th to 90th

Transboundary particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components

This report presents the EMEP activities in 2018 and 2019 in relation to transboundary fluxes of particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components, with focus on results for 2017. It presents major results of the activities related to emission inventories, observations and modelling. The report also introduces specific relevant research activities addressing EMEP key challenges, as well as technical developments of the observation and modelling capacities

Transboundary particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components : EMEP Status Report 1 2017; August 23, 2017

This report presents the EMEP activities in 2016 and 2017 in relation to transboundary fluxes of particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components, with focus on results for 2015. It presents major results of the activities related to emission inventories, observations and modelling. The report also introduces specific relevant research activities addressing EMEP key challenges, as well as technical developments of the observation and modelling capacities. An important topic this year is the transition to the new EMEP grid and resolution. For the first time, officially reported fine scale emissions (0.1◦×0.1◦ resolution) have been used in the EMEP MSC-W model runs for air pollution assessment. The impacts of this change on model results and its comparisons to observations are analyzed in this report

Data from: Climate mediates the effects of disturbance on ant assemblage structure

Many studies have focused on the impacts of climate change on biological assemblages, yet little is known about how climate interacts with other major anthropogenic influences on biodiversity, such as habitat disturbance. Using a unique global database of 1128 local ant assemblages, we examined whether climate mediates the effects of habitat disturbance on assemblage structure at a global scale. Species richness and evenness were associated positively with temperature, and negatively with disturbance. However, the interaction among temperature, precipitation and disturbance shaped species richness and evenness. The effect was manifested through a failure of species richness to increase substantially with temperature in transformed habitats at low precipitation. At low precipitation levels, evenness increased with temperature in undisturbed sites, peaked at medium temperatures in disturbed sites and remained low in transformed sites. In warmer climates with lower rainfall, the effects of increasing disturbance on species richness and evenness were akin to decreases in temperature of up to 9°C. Anthropogenic disturbance and ongoing climate change may interact in complicated ways to shape the structure of assemblages, with hot, arid environments likely to be at greatest risk

Ant assemblage species richness and PIE

This data file includes details of species richness and PIE from pitfall-trapped ant assemblages across the globe. The data includes the following information for 1128 assemblages: Locality_ID - A unique code for each locality; Source - Details of reference source for each dataset; Cluster - Geographic cluster used as a random factor in analyses; Latitude - Latitude provided by authors; Longitude - Longitude provided by authors; Mean annual temperature - Derived from WorldClim; Total annual precipitation - Derived from WorldClim; Temperature range - Derived from WorldClim; Disturbance - Disturbance described by authors; Hemisphere - Derived from Latitude; Continent - Continent provided by authors; Pitfall days - Number of pitfalls multiplied by trapping days; Transect length - Distance from first to last trap in transect; Species richness - Total number of species collected; PIE - Probability of Interspecific Encounter, a measure of species evenness. Further details are provided in the paper