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| Ecological communities are being reshaped by climatic change. Losses and gains of species will alter community composition and diversity but these effects are likely to vary geographically and may be hard to predict from uncontrolled "natural experiments''. In this study, we used open-top warming chambers to simulate a range of warming scenarios for ground-nesting ant communities at a northern (Harvard Forest, MA) and southern ( Duke Forest, NC) study site in the eastern US. After 2.5 years of experimental warming, we found no significant effects of accumulated growing degree days or soil moisture on ant diversity or community composition at the northern site, but a decrease in asymptotic species richness and changes in community composition at the southern site. However, fewer than 10% of the species at either site responded significantly to the warming treatments. Our results contrast with those of a comparable natural experiment conducted along a nearby elevational gradient, in which species richness and composition responded strongly to changes in temperature and other correlated variables. Together, our findings provide some support for the prediction that warming will have a larger negative effect on ecological communities in warmer locales at lower latitudes and suggest that predicted responses to warming may differ between controlled field experiments and unmanipulated thermal gradients. | |
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