Rates of species turnover across elevation vary with vertical stratum in rainforest ant assemblages

Climatic variation at local scales can influence both exposure and sensitivity of organisms and thereby scale up to influence population persistence and community composition across broader geographic extents. Tropical forest canopies are more climatically dynamic than the understorey. Consequently, the niche space of forest canopies has higher overlap in thermal conditions along elevation gradients, which imposes less of a climatic barrier to arboreal species than their ground-dwelling counterparts. We use ant communities of the Australian Wet Tropics to test the prediction that ground communities should have higher rates of species turnover over elevation compared to arboreal communities. We sampled ground and arboreal ants along elevation gradients at a bioregional scale that includes four mountain sub-regions. We assessed community composition at three spatial resolutions (regional, elevation, vertical) and then calculated beta diversity (species turnover) over elevation for ground ..., Ants were sampled at 15 elevation sites at four mountain sub-regions in the Australian Wet Tropics Bioregion. Ants were collected using tuna baits with 5 vials placed every three metres in vertical height from the ground to the canopy at mutliple trees per site. Survey height varied between 15–27m. 
Leahy_etal_WFCA_Ant_Data.csv
The main data file. A site by species matrix. Cells show counts of individuals of each species per vial. This file is read in to the three R scripts in the folder.
Leahy_etal_beta_div.csv
The file produced from the R script \"Leahy_etal_Ant_Beta_Diversity.R\" that is read in for the models R script, \"Leahy_etal_Models\", , # Rates of species turnover across elevation vary with vertical stratum in rainforest ant assemblages

The folder **Leahy_etal_DataS1** contains the data and R scripts for the article. All material is free to use, but we would appreciate being informed by email if the data is used and this dataset and article cited if appropriate. Questions or comments can be addressed to Lily Leahy: [[e-mail]](mailto:l.leahy@latrobe.e)

## Description of the data and file structure

File list (files found within DataS1.zip)

* Leahy_etal_WFCA_Ant_Data.csv
* Leahy_etal_beta_div.csv
* Leahy_etal_Ant_Species_Composition.R
* Leahy_etal_Ant_Beta_Diversity.R
* Leahy_etal_Models.R

Description of files and workflow

Have all files in the same folder and set R working directory to this folder.

**Leahy_etal_WFCA_Ant_Data.csv**

Main survey collections data in a site by species matrix showing all data for all sites surveyed.  Tuna baited vials were placed every three metres from groun...