Talk delivered at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution in St. John's Newfoundland, July 2016 Website: www.malexsmith.com Twitter: @Alex_Smith_Ants

1. ELEVATION, CRYPSIS AND PHYLOGENETIC COMMUNITY
STRUCTURE OF NEOTROPICAL ARTHROPODS
Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution
Friday, July 8, 2016
@Alex_Smith_Ants
salex@uoguelph.ca
M. Alex Smith1, K. Pare1, C. Warne1,
W. Hallwachs2 and D. H. Janzen2
1 Department of Integrative Biology
University of Guelph
2 Department of Biology,
University of Pennsylvania

2. Kate Pare
Connor Warne

7. Dry forest
Rain forest
Cloud forest
Collection Localities
Área de Conservación Guanacaste
In an area ~3.5x the area of the city of St. John’s there are estimated to reside 3% of the world’s biodiversity

9. R² = 0.9611
17
22
27
32
37
0 500 1000 1500
Average Daily Max: Temp (°C)
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
04‐Dec‐12 04‐Dec‐13 04‐Dec‐14 04‐Dec
Daily Max: Temp (°C)

10. Questions:
• Who lives where?
• How much overlap?
• Is this changing?
• Functional:phylogenetic?

11. Smith, M. A., Hallwachs, W. and
Janzen, D. H. (2014), Diversity and
phylogenetic community structure of
ants along a Costa Rican elevational
gradient. Ecography, 37: 720–731.
doi: 10.1111/j.1600‐
0587.2013.00631.x

12. Elevational Range
An example with
Gnamptogenys ants
• Most species found at only 1 site
• Small number of sp. with a range

13. Elevational Range
An example with
Collembola
• Some species found at only 1 site
• Larger number of sp. with a range

14. Chord Diagram of elevational beta‐
diversity
NB: the colours only represent the rows in the comparison and are only present to
facilitate the visualisation of the pairwise connections.

15. • So there is strong genetic
differentiation at a fine
spatial scale.
• Is there corresponding
functional diversity?
• “Ant space”

16. Ants in Space?
https://youtu.be/8j0WNUayx3U

17. Functionally significant morphological
features

18. F= 3.81, df=2, p=0.023

19. F=16.069, df=2, p<0.000

20. Morphospace along an elevational
gradient
• Largest “ant‐space” occurs
with the greatest diversity
• Dry & cloud forest occupy a
subset of this “ant‐space”
• These subsets represent
smaller body measurements
of features that are
functionally associated with
predation.
• This does not bode well for
the future.
• The largest “Collembola‐
space” occurs in the dry
forest. Not more diverse.
Range of ranges.
• Rain & cloud forest occupy a
different portion of this
“Collembola‐space”
• Traits here are those
associated with life at the
surface.

21. 1. Turnover: extremely small
communities
• Climate change is affecting and will
continue to affect turnover.
• Vulnerable, vulnerable vulnerable!
2. Degree of coupling between
genetic divergence and
morphospace is not simple
• Related in ants, not so much in
Collembola
3. What next?
• Community characterisation
• Expansion of functional traits (ie. related
to abiotic variables of thermal ecology)
• Taxonomic expansion
Messages

22. Acknowledgements
• The ACG for protecting it all!
• The ACG parataxonomists for
collecting, rearing and
databasing ACG insects.
• ALL the graduate and
undergraduate students and
volunteers in the Smith Lab for
their enthusiasm, questions,
dedication and love for the
little things.
• NSERC Discovery Grant to
MAS
@Alex_Smith_Antssalex@uoguelph.ca

23. Come & work with us!
http://malexsmith.com/
Chris Ho