Too cold to handle: Climatic constraints on arboreal ants in temperate forests

The macroscale at which we measure, model, and predict climate change does not align with the microscale at which small ectotherms experience climate. To understand climate’s influence on biodiversity and potential ecological effects of climate change, more work is needed to understand how ectotherm physiology relates to microclimatic temperatures. Tree canopies are an example of a habitat that produces extreme microclimates, and arthropods in tropical forest canopies are threatened by extreme heat and warming. The situation in temperate canopies, however, is less clear. Conventional wisdom suggests that winter cold limits arboreal arthropod diversity in temperate forests, but because the canopy is less buffered from extreme temperatures, summer heat could also play a role. Heat- and cold-limited communities will respond differently to climate change, so this distinction is critical. Using the frameworks of the thermal adaptation hypothesis and thermal niche asymmetry, we aske..., , , # Data from: Too cold to handle: Climatic constraints on arboreal ants in temperate forests

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0vt4b8h79](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0vt4b8h79)

## Description of the data and file structure

These are the data underlying the analyses and results of the manuscript titled \"Too cold to handle: Climatic constraints on arboreal ants in temperate forests\". In this manuscript, we use mesoclimatic (air) and microclimatic (nest) temperatures to assess whether ants in the temperate tree canopy are physiologically adapted to more extreme temperatures and whether they are more limited by summer heat or winter cold. We collected air temperatures in the canopy and on the ground at 5 forest sites. We collected internal nest temperatures from 8 to 10 ant nests in the canopy and on the ground of those same forest sites. We also measured heat and cold tolerance arboreal and terrestrial ant communities in the summer and spring. 

### Files and variables

#### File: air\_t...,