D3407: A comparison of arthropod diversity & abundance along four elevational gradients in Colorado for ants, beetles, and grasshoppers
McCain CM, Szewczyk T, Nufio CR, Hicks A. D3407: A comparison of arthropod diversity & abundance along four elevational gradients in Colorado for ants, beetles, and grasshoppers
Elevational gradients are a powerful test system to understand biodiversity patterns and drivers. Their spatial scale is small enough for field studies of interacting communities, and the climatic habitat, and taxonomic variability can be as great as that seen along latitudinal gradients. Systematic elevational sampling allows for detection of species distributions, the importance of biotic responses to land use change and climate change. Our understanding of elevational trends in biodiversity are dominated by vertebrates. Although there are meta-analyses for ants and moths, which generally display mid-elevational peaks in diversity. But there are few elevational diversity studies for multiple arthropod groups, very few for all beetles, and are lacking for most arthropod groups in the Rocky Mountains.
- Type
- Poster
- Authors
- McCain, Christy; Szewczyk, Tim; Nufio, Cesar; Hicks, Andy
- Units
- ROMO