Climatic drivers prevail in montane and lowland Odonata latitudinal diversity gradients, but human modification erodes lowland patterns

Latitudinal diversity gradients (LDGs) reflect the interplay of historical, ecological, and evolutionary processes, but these drivers may vary across landforms. Mountains, with steep elevational and climatic gradients, may sustain different diversity dynamics than adjacent lowlands, where human activities are often more intense. Using distributional and phylogenetic data for 732 Odonata species across eastern China, we compared taxonomic and phylogenetic LDGs between mountains and lowlands and identified their environmental determinants. Phylogenetic diversity was quantified using two complementary metrics: mean pairwise distance (MPD), capturing basal-level phylogenetic divergence, and mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD), reflecting tip-level divergence. Odonata species richness and phylogenetic diversity both declined significantly with latitude in mountains and lowlands. The magnitude of these gradients was similar for species richness and tip phylogenetic diversity, but basal phyloge..., , # Data from: Climatic drivers prevail in montane and lowland Odonata latitudinal diversity gradients, but human modification erodes lowland patterns Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.wpzgmsc2s](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wpzgmsc2s) ## Description of the data and file structure We have submitted our raw data, including two input data files (*Mountain_dataset.xlsx* and *Mountain_shape.RDATA*), as well as the R code, comprising two files (*ECOG70066_Rcode.R* and *Functions.tar*). ### Files and variables #### File: ECOG70066_Rcode.R **Description:** R_code to loading data, performing data aalysis, and creating figures. #### File: Mountain_dataset.xlsx **Description:** The raw data file includes two sheets: “***Data***” (Sheet 1) and “***Variables_Abbreviation***” (Sheet 2). The ***Data*** sheet provides, for each grid cell, geographic information, environmental variables, biodiversity indices, and a classification indicating whether the grid cell is located in mountainous or lowlands..., ,