The assessment of the relative importance of competitive interactions and abiotic environment in structuring ground-dwelling ant communities along an elevational gradient.

We will study ground-dwelling ant assemblages along the elevational gradient at the Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research Station. We intend to assess the relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping ant community structure and species richness. Specifically, we ask whether competitive interactions or some component of the abiotic environment (e.g annual precipitation, temperature productivity) sets a limit to species density within a given locality. Sampling along an elevational gradient provides the opportunity to detect rapid change in environmental variables, which can potentially explain parallel variation in community structure. Elevational gradients also allow for sampling different habitats while the regional pool of species available remains relatively similar. Compositional difference in-between communities are thus more likely to be caused by ecological time scale forces than historic ones (i.e. compared to latitudinal gradients)