Data for: Colonization and extinction processes mediate environmental effects on the phylogenetic diversity of invertebrate communities

Phylogeny offers a powerful framework for understanding mechanisms driving community assembly. Yet, most empirical studies in community phylogenetics rely on observational approaches. In this study, we explore how two important drivers of community assembly — habitat size and predator presence — shape species richness and phylogenetic relatedness of prey communities by altering colonization and extinction processes. Using bromeliad invertebrate communities as our study system, we combined surveys of natural communities with experiments that manipulated habitat size and predator presence. Colonization and extinction were isolated in separate experiments to test whether the effects of habitat size and predator presence differed across stages of community assembly. Following species-area theory, we expected larger habitats to increase species richness and, given the strong consumptive effects of the top predator (a damselfly larva), we expected species richness to decline in the presence o..., , , # Data for: Colonization and extinction processes mediate environmental effects on the phylogenetic diversity of invertebrate communities

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.31zcrjdw7](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.31zcrjdw7)

## Description of the data and file structure

We performed natural surveys and designed *in situ* experiments to isolate the effects of specific environmental variables on community diversity and differentiate their effects during colonization and extinction processes.

The focal environmental variables were habitat size and predator presence, and analyses were performed at different taxonomic scales.

This project used the aquatic bromeliad invertebrate community as the study system and was conducted in Pitilla Biological Station, Costa Rica. Any NA represents missing data.

### Folder and file structure

The content is organized into three sections:

* **Data_input.zip: **contains `.csv` and `.txt` files required to run the scripts, including community a..., ,