Complex temporal dynamics of insect metacommunities along a tropical elevational gradient

Unraveling the spatiotemporal dynamics of communities is critical to understand how biodiversity responds to global changes. However, this task is not trivial, as these dynamics are quite complex, and most studies are limited to few taxa at small local and temporal scales. Tropical mountains are ideal indicators of biodiversity response since these endangered and complex ecosystems include many distinct habitats within small geographical areas, harboring a megadiverse fauna, especially insects. Indeed, while insects are particularly sensitive to environmental and climatic changes, the extent of the impact of climate variability on mountain tropical insect diversity remains poorly understood. Here we present time-series data from a decade of studying the spatiotemporal dynamics of ants, butterflies, and dung beetles. We assessed patterns of species richness change along the elevational gradient for each taxonomic group per sampling year and cumulatively over years. We then quantified com..., , , # Complex temporal dynamics of insect metacommunities along a tropical elevational gradient

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k0p2ngfh4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k0p2ngfh4)

We sent our data (dados clima 2.txt), information on the climate data; (Deltas.txt) with the delta calculations; (ric e delta.txt) with the richness calculations; (ric_ano.txt) richness calculations of the groups by year; (tbi insetos.txt) to evaluate the losses and gains of the insect communities; R script (Análise de clima.R) with all the analyses used.

**DADOS CLIMA 2:**

-Nome (sampling sites name)

\- Elevacao (elevation of the weather station)

- Period (pairwise combinations of consecutive surveys years)

\- Temp (mean temperature (C°)

\- CVTemp (coefficient of variation of mean temperature (C°)

\- Umi (humidity mean (%)

\- CVUmi (coefficient of variation of mean temperature (C°)

**Data RIC E DELTA**

-Temp_M (mean temperature (C°))

-TemDV (coefficient of variation of mean temperature (C°))

-Umidade...