Local and landscape environmental heterogeneity drive ant community structure in temperate semi-natural upland grasslands

Environmental heterogeneity is an important driver of ecological communities. Here, we assessed the effects of local and landscape spatial environmental heterogeneity on ant community structure in temperate semi-natural upland grasslands of Central Germany. We surveyed 33 grassland sites representing a gradient in elevation and landscape composition. Local environmental heterogeneity was measured in terms of variability of temperature and moisture within and between grassland sites. Grassland management type (pasture vs. meadows) was additionally included as a local environmental heterogeneity measure. The complexity of habitat types in the surroundings of grassland sites was used as a measure of landscape environmental heterogeneity. As descriptors of ant community structure, we considered species composition, community evenness, and functional response traits. We found that extensively grazed pastures and within-site heterogeneity in soil moisture at local scale, and a high diversity ..., Ant survey and nest density calculation was based on “Seifert, B. (2017). The ecology of Central European non-arboreal ants – 37 years of a broad-spectrum analysis under permanent taxonomic control. Soil Organisms, 89(1), pp. 1–67. Dataset collection is provided in detail in the article's main text and appendix. 
Ant survey: The procedure consists of direct localization of workers and nests within a spatially nested scheme covering three levels of search effort in a specific area: an intensive scrutiny (S-) search performed on soil and vegetation within a smaller area (S- sampling area); a quick (Q-) search on ground surface performed within a larger area (Q- sampling area); and a spot inspection (SI-) in the most promising habitats for nests in the surroundings of the Q-areas. The S- search aims to detect nests of small species with hidden nests and small territories, while the Q- search reflects realistic nest densities of larger species with lower nest densities but larger territorie..., Microsoft Excel - LibreOffice Calc