Temperature and tree number drive of the tree crown-dwelling arthropod diversity in Brazilian semi-arid cities

Description
Supplementary Material from the original research article entitled: “Temperature and tree number drive of the tree crown-dwelling arthropod diversity in Brazilian semi-arid cities”.
Authors: Arleu Barbosa Viana-Junior, Luiz Filipe Santos Silva, Edíson Cardoso Pinheiro-Júnior, Edna Karolyne do Nascimento Santos, Matheus Carvalho Araújo, Ítalo Emmanuel Costa Alves, Bruno da Silva Martins, Joselice da Silva Pereira, Rafaella Santana Santos, Bráulio Almeida Santos, Maria Avany Bezerra-Gusmão.
ARTICLE INFORMATION: This study investigates the variations in community structure and taxonomic composition of the tree-dwelling arthropods in 10 Brazilian cities of semi-arid climate located in the dry forest region (Caatinga), taking into account temperature gradients and number of street trees along of the cities. We collected a total of 22,911 arthropod specimens belonging to two classes (Insecta and Arachnida) and 24 orders. Insecta accounted for 95% of the specimens and was dominated by the orders Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Thysanoptera, and Psocoptera. In the class Arachnida, Araneae was the most abundant order. As expected, temperature (min: 21.7°C, max: 26.8°C) proved to be a significant predictor of arthropod diversity in semi-arid cities. Cities with higher temperatures reduce taxonomic unit richness (0D) by 33% and diversity (1D and 2D) in up to 75% and affect composition of arthropod orders composition. On the other hand, the effect of tree number showed distinct responses among the sampled orders, positively contributing to the abundance of Psocoptera, while exerting a negative effect on the abundance of Thysanoptera.