DOI: 10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4sd
title: Aquatic-terrestrial linkages drive contrasting biodiversity patterns in tropical and temperate forests

description: Riparian ecosystems harbour unique biodiversity because of their close
 interconnections with adjacent aquatic ecosystems. Yet, how aquatic
 ecosystems influence terrestrial biodiversity over different spatial
 scales is poorly understood, particularly in the tropics. We conducted
 field campaigns to collect 235 terrestrial invertebrate assemblages along
 150 m transects from 47 streams in both Brazil and the UK, one of the
 largest known datasets of riparian invertebrate community composition at
 multiple spatial scales. Invertebrate densities increased towards water in
 both regions. In Brazil this was driven by an increase in spiders, with a
 corresponding decrease in non-predators, resulting in higher predator:prey
 ratios near water. In the UK, non-predator densities increased towards
 water, decreasing predator:prey ratios. Whilst pairwise dissimilarity
 increased with distance from water in both regions, β-diversity was
 significantly higher in tropical assemblages, with more β-diversity
 explained by turnover. Spider community composition was significantly
 structured by distance from water in the Brazilian sites, suggesting
 tropical assemblages were influenced more by emerging aquatic prey, with a
 distinct spider community replacing other predators, with possible
 top-down control of terrestrial prey. High turnover-driven dissimilarity
 amongst tropical assemblages suggests Brazilian riparian ecosystems are
 better managed at the landscape scale, with an emphasis on in-stream
 measures preventing disruption of aquatic resource subsidies.
description: # **Aquatic-terrestrial linkages drive contrasting biodiversity patterns
 in tropical and temperate forests**
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4sd](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4sd) This dataset contains terrestrial, riparian invertebrate community data sampled from riparian zones, following a hierarchical, spatially nested design. Sampling of invertebrate communities was conducted at five distances away from streams along 150m perpendicular transects going from the stream bank into riparian forest. Sampling was replicated at 47 streams in 7 sites in two regions (tropical and temperate), for 235 total riparian communities sampled. ## Description of the data and file structure The dataset is in a .csv file. Each row represents a single invertebrate morphospecies from a single community sampled at a specific distance from a specific stream. Invertebrates were identified to family level or the lowest taxonomic unit necessary to determine functional feeding guild, before sorting into morphospecies at each site. Note, morphospecies classifications are not equivalent between sites. Invertebrate abundance was corrected by the mass of vegetation sampled and expressed as density per kg plant biomass in final analysis. &lt;"NA"&gt; denotes "Not Available" values. All additional methodological details are present in the main and supplementary components of the published paper. ## List and description of variables * **"site"** - Sampling site name. "Ashdown", "Wales", and "Scotland" are the temperate British sites. "Cananeia", "Japi", "N.Amazon", and "Iguacu" are the tropical Brazilian sites. * **"stream"** - Stream ID per site * **"point"** - Sampling distance from water (m) * **"order"** - Taxonomic order * **"family"** - Taxonomic family * **"genus"** - Taxonomic genus * **"morphospecies"** - Morphospecies ID (per site) * **"LTU"** - Denotes "Lowest Taxonomic Unit" individuals were identified to * **"abundance"** - Number of individuals of specific morphospecies sampling at a specific point distance, stream and site * **"feeding.guild"**- Functional feeding guild. Descriptions of classifications are present in the main and supplementary components of the published paper