Precipitation mediates termite functional diversity and dominance in southern Africa

Background:
Termites are important ecosystem engineers in the tropics and sub-tropics, so understanding their diversity, particularly their functional diversity, across biogeographical scales is important for understanding where they alter theenvironment and deliver ecological services. Feeding groups combine phylogeneticand dietary information about termites into ecologically significant functional categories
Objectives:
To characterise termite feeding group prevalence, distribution and diversity in southern Africa and assess the effect of precipitation on termite diversity and assemblage composition.
Method:
Termite genus and species-level occurrence data were acquired from the South African Termite Database and classified into one of five feeding groups. We evaluated the prevalence of each feeding group and assessed species and feeding group richness and dominance. Linear regressions were performed to determine the relationship between 1) species richness and precipitation; and 2) f..., Termite species data and study area
Termite presence-absence data were acquired from the South African Termite Database (SATD) maintained by the Biosystematics Division of the Plant Protection Research Institute at the Agricultural Research Council in Pretoria, South Africa. The SATD contains >35 000 occurrence records, mostly a product of the South African National Survey of Isoptera (NSI) led by Dr W.H.G. Co-aton and co-workers (Coaton & Sheasby 1972); some records were also gleaned from Mitchell (1980). The original survey was initially intended to include every quarter degree square (0.25° x 0.25°, or 50 x 50 km) of South Africa, but was later expanded to include surveys from Namibia, Zimbabwe and Eswatini. Unfortunately, no termite survey data is available from Botswana or Lesotho (Uys 2002; Figure 1).
The National Survey of Isoptera was conducted over two decades (~1960-1980). Termites were sampled mostly during the wet season (when they are most active), through active sea..., , # Precipitation mediates termite functional diversity and dominance in southern Africa

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pnvx0k6xj](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pnvx0k6xj)

## Description of the data and file structure

Southern Africa contains roughly 54 genera and 165 species of termites, which represents nearly 20% of 280 termite genera known globally (Uys 2002). In this study, we aim to 1) characterise termite functional prevalence, distribution and diversity across the bioclimatic and elevation gradients of southern Africa; and 2) assess the effect of precipitation on termite functional diversity and assemblage composition.

The spreadsheet includes 18 fields :

* TARGET_FID:** unique identifier for grid cell.  The grid cell is quarter degree square (0.25° x 0.25°, or 50 x 50 km).
* POINT_X:** latitude of grid cell centroid 
* POINT_Y:** longitude of grid cell centroid
* Ecoregion:** Ecoregion of grid cell centroid as described in Olson et. al 2001 (Olson, D.M., Dinerstein, E., Wikr...