@article{vargo_leniaud_swoboda_diamond_weiser_miller_bagneres_2013, title={Clinal variation in colony breeding structure and level of inbreeding in the subterranean termites Reticulitermes flavipes and R.grassei}, volume={22}, ISSN={["1365-294X"]}, DOI={10.1111/mec.12166}, abstractNote={Social insects exhibit remarkable variation in their colony breeding structures, both within and among species. Ecological factors are believed to be important in shaping reproductive traits of social insect colonies, yet there is little information linking specific environmental variables with differences in breeding structure. Subterranean termites (Rhinotermitidae) show exceptional variation in colony breeding structure, differing in the number of reproductives and degree of inbreeding; colonies can be simple families headed by a single pair of monogamous reproductives (king and queen) or they can be extended families headed by multiple inbreeding neotenic reproductives (wingless individuals). Using microsatellite markers, we characterized colony breeding structure and levels of inbreeding in populations over large parts of the range of the subterranean termites Reticulitermes flavipes in the USA and R. grassei in Europe. Combining these new data with previous results on populations of both species, we found that latitude had a strong effect on the proportion of extended‐family colonies in R. flavipes and on levels of inbreeding in both species. We examined the effect of several environmental variables that vary latitudinally; while the degree of inbreeding was greatest in cool, moist habitats in both species, seasonality affected the species differently. Inbreeding in R. flavipes was most strongly associated with climatic variables (mean annual temperature and seasonality), whereas nonclimatic variables, including the availability of wood substrate and soil composition, were important predictors of inbreeding in R. grassei. These results are the first showing that termite breeding structure is shaped by local environmental factors and that species can vary in their responses to these factors.}, number={5}, journal={MOLECULAR ECOLOGY}, author={Vargo, Edward L. and Leniaud, Laurianne and Swoboda, Lois E. and Diamond, Sarah E. and Weiser, Michael D. and Miller, Dini M. and Bagneres, Anne-Genevieve}, year={2013}, month={Mar}, pages={1447–1462} }
 @article{jenkins_guenard_diamond_weiser_dunn_2013, title={Conservation implications of divergent global patterns of ant and vertebrate diversity}, volume={19}, ISSN={["1472-4642"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84880136840&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1111/ddi.12090}, abstractNote={Global conservation planning is often oriented around vertebrates and plants, yet most organisms are invertebrates. To explore the potential conservation implications of this bias, we assessed how well patterns of diversity for an influential group of invertebrates, the ants, correspond with those of three vertebrate groups (birds, mammals and amphibians).}, number={8}, journal={DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS}, author={Jenkins, Clinton N. and Guenard, Benoit and Diamond, Sarah E. and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R.}, year={2013}, month={Aug}, pages={1084–1092} }
 @article{siefert_ravenscroft_weiser_swenson_2013, title={Functional beta-diversity patterns reveal deterministic community assembly processes in eastern North American trees}, volume={22}, number={6}, journal={Global Ecology and Biogeography}, author={Siefert, A. and Ravenscroft, C. and Weiser, M. D. and Swenson, N. G.}, year={2013}, pages={682–691} }
 @article{lucky_trautwein_guenard_weiser_dunn_2013, title={Tracing the Rise of Ants - Out of the Ground}, volume={8}, ISSN={["1932-6203"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84891337406&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pone.0084012}, abstractNote={The evolution of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is increasingly well-understood due to recent phylogenetic analyses, along with estimates of divergence times and diversification rates. Yet, leading hypotheses regarding the ancestral habitat of ants conflict with new findings that early ant lineages are cryptic and subterranean. Where the ants evolved, in respect to habitat, and how habitat shifts took place over time have not been formally tested. Here, we reconstruct the habitat transitions of crown-group ants through time, focusing on where they nest and forage (in the canopy, litter, or soil). Based on ancestral character reconstructions, we show that in contrast to the current consensus based on verbal arguments that ants evolved in tropical leaf litter, the soil is supported as the ancestral stratum of all ants. We also find subsequent movements up into the litter and, in some cases, into the canopy. Given the global importance of ants, because of their diversity, ecological influence and status as the most successful eusocial lineage on Earth, understanding the early evolution of this lineage provides insight into the factors that made this group so successful today.}, number={12}, journal={PLOS ONE}, author={Lucky, Andrea and Trautwein, Michelle D. and Guenard, Benoit S. and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R.}, year={2013}, month={Dec} }
 @article{kaspari_weiser_2012, title={Energy, taxonomic aggregation, and the geography of ant abundance}, volume={35}, number={1}, journal={Ecography}, author={Kaspari, M. and Weiser, M. D.}, year={2012}, pages={65–72} }
 @article{guenard_weiser_dunn_2012, title={Global models of ant diversity suggest regions where new discoveries are most likely are under disproportionate deforestation threat}, volume={109}, ISSN={["0027-8424"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84860799321&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1073/pnas.1113867109}, abstractNote={Most of the described and probably undescribed species on Earth are insects. Global models of species diversity rarely focus on insects and none attempt to address unknown, undescribed diversity. We assembled a database representing about 13,000 records for ant generic distribution from over 350 regions that cover much of the globe. Based on two models of diversity and endemicity, we identified regions where our knowledge of ant diversity is most limited, regions we have called “hotspots of discovery.” A priori, such regions might be expected to be remote and untouched. Instead, we found that the hotspots of discovery are also the regions in which biodiversity is the most threatened by habitat destruction. Our results not only highlight the immediate need for conservation of the remaining natural habitats in these regions, but also the extent to which, by focusing on well-known groups such as vertebrates, we may fail to conserve the far greater diversity of the smaller species yet to be found.}, number={19}, journal={PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA}, author={Guenard, Benoit and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R.}, year={2012}, month={May}, pages={7368–7373} }
 @article{swenson_enquist_pither_kerkhoff_boyle_weiser_elser_fagan_forero-montana_fyllas_et al._2012, title={The biogeography and filtering of woody plant functional diversity in North and South America}, volume={21}, number={8}, journal={Global Ecology and Biogeography}, author={Swenson, N. G. and Enquist, B. J. and Pither, J. and Kerkhoff, A. J. and Boyle, B. and Weiser, M. D. and Elser, J. J. and Fagan, W. F. and Forero-Montana, J. and Fyllas, N. and et al.}, year={2012}, pages={798–808} }
 @article{fitzpatrick_sanders_ferrier_longino_weiser_dunn_2011, title={Forecasting the future of biodiversity: a test of single- and multi-species models for ants in North America}, volume={34}, ISSN={["1600-0587"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79958098554&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1111/j.1600-0587.2011.06653.x}, abstractNote={The geographic distributions of many taxonomic groups remain mostly unknown, hindering attempts to investigate the response of the majority of species on Earth to climate change using species distributions models (SDMs). Multi-species models can incorporate data for rare or poorly-sampled species, but their application to forecasting climate change impacts on biodiversity has been limited. Here we compare forecasts of changes in patterns of ant biodiversity in North America derived from ensembles of single-species models to those from a multi-species modeling approach, Generalized Dissimilarity Modeling (GDM). We found that both single- and multi-species models forecasted large changes in ant community composition in relatively warm environments. GDM predicted higher turnover than SDMs and across a larger contiguous area, including the southern third of North America and notably Central America, where the proportion of ants with relatively small ranges is high and where data limitations are most likely to impede the application of SDMs. Differences between approaches were also influenced by assumptions regarding dispersal, with forecasts being more similar if no-dispersal was assumed. When full-dispersal was assumed, SDMs predicted higher turnover in southern Canada than did GDM. Taken together, our results suggest that 1) warm rather than cold regions potentially could experience the greatest changes in ant fauna under climate change and that 2) multi-species models may represent an important complement to SDMs, particularly in analyses involving large numbers of rare or poorly-sampled species. Comparisons of the ability of single- and multi-species models to predict observed changes in community composition are needed in order to draw definitive conclusions regarding their application to investigating climate change impacts on biodiversity.}, number={5}, journal={ECOGRAPHY}, author={Fitzpatrick, Matthew C. and Sanders, Nathan J. and Ferrier, Simon and Longino, John T. and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Rob}, year={2011}, month={Oct}, pages={836–847} }
 @article{jenkins_sanders_andersen_arnan_bruehl_cerda_ellison_fisher_fitzpatrick_gotelli_et al._2011, title={Global diversity in light of climate change: the case of ants}, volume={17}, ISSN={["1472-4642"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79958088243&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00770.x}, abstractNote={Aim  To use a fine‐grained global model of ant diversity to identify the limits of our knowledge of diversity in the context of climate change.}, number={4}, journal={DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS}, author={Jenkins, Clinton N. and Sanders, Nathan J. and Andersen, Alan N. and Arnan, Xavier and Bruehl, Carsten A. and Cerda, Xim and Ellison, Aaron M. and Fisher, Brian L. and Fitzpatrick, Matthew C. and Gotelli, Nicholas J. and et al.}, year={2011}, month={Jul}, pages={652–662} }
 @article{lessard_borregaard_fordyce_rahbek_weiser_dunn_sanders_2011, title={Strong influence of regional species pools on continent-wide structuring of local communities}, volume={279}, ISSN={0962-8452 1471-2954}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0552}, DOI={10.1098/rspb.2011.0552}, abstractNote={There is a long tradition in ecology of evaluating the relative contribution of the regional species pool and local interactions on the structure of local communities. Similarly, a growing number of studies assess the phylogenetic structure of communities, relative to that in the regional species pool, to examine the interplay between broad-scale evolutionary and fine-scale ecological processes. Finally, a renewed interest in the influence of species source pools on communities has shown that the definition of the source pool influences interpretations of patterns of community structure. We use a continent-wide dataset of local ant communities and implement ecologically explicit source pool definitions to examine the relative importance of regional species pools and local interactions for shaping community structure. Then we assess which factors underlie systematic variation in the structure of communities along climatic gradients. We find that the average phylogenetic relatedness of species in ant communities decreases from tropical to temperate regions, but the strength of this relationship depends on the level of ecological realism in the definition of source pools. We conclude that the evolution of climatic niches influences the phylogenetic structure of regional source pools and that the influence of regional source pools on local community structure is strong.}, number={1727}, journal={Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}, publisher={The Royal Society}, author={Lessard, Jean-Philippe and Borregaard, Michael K. and Fordyce, James A. and Rahbek, Carsten and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R. and Sanders, Nathan J.}, year={2011}, month={Jun}, pages={266–274} }
 @article{menke_guenard_sexton_weiser_dunn_silverman_2011, title={Urban areas may serve as habitat and corridors for dry-adapted, heat tolerant species; an example from ants}, volume={14}, ISSN={["1573-1642"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79955054212&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1007/s11252-010-0150-7}, number={2}, journal={URBAN ECOSYSTEMS}, author={Menke, Sean B. and Guenard, Benoit and Sexton, Joseph O. and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R. and Silverman, Jules}, year={2011}, month={Jun}, pages={135–163} }
 @article{stegen_swenson_enquist_white_phillips_jorgensen_weiser_mendoza_vargas_2011, title={Variation in above-ground forest biomass across broad climatic gradients}, volume={20}, number={5}, journal={Global Ecology and Biogeography}, author={Stegen, J. C. and Swenson, N. G. and Enquist, B. J. and White, E. P. and Phillips, O. L. and Jorgensen, P. M. and Weiser, M. D. and Mendoza, A. M. and Vargas, P. N.}, year={2011}, pages={744–754} }
 @article{weiser_sanders_agosti_andersen_ellison_fisher_gibb_gotelli_gove_gross_et al._2010, title={Canopy and litter ant assemblages share similar climate-species density relationships}, volume={6}, ISSN={["1744-9561"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-78649884769&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1098/rsbl.2010.0151}, abstractNote={Tropical forest canopies house most of the globe's diversity, yet little is known about global patterns and drivers of canopy diversity. Here, we present models of ant species density, using climate, abundance and habitat (i.e. canopy versus litter) as predictors. Ant species density is positively associated with temperature and precipitation, and negatively (or non-significantly) associated with two metrics of seasonality, precipitation seasonality and temperature range. Ant species density was significantly higher in canopy samples, but this difference disappeared once abundance was considered. Thus, apparent differences in species density between canopy and litter samples are probably owing to differences in abundance–diversity relationships, and not differences in climate–diversity relationships. Thus, it appears that canopy and litter ant assemblages share a common abundance–diversity relationship influenced by similar but not identical climatic drivers.}, number={6}, journal={BIOLOGY LETTERS}, author={Weiser, Michael D. and Sanders, Nathan J. and Agosti, Donat and Andersen, Alan N. and Ellison, Aaron M. and Fisher, Brian L. and Gibb, Heloise and Gotelli, Nicholas J. and Gove, Aaron D. and Gross, Kevin and et al.}, year={2010}, month={Dec}, pages={769–772} }
 @article{guenard_weiser_dunn_2010, title={Global generic richness and distribution: new maps of the world of ants with examples of their use in the context of Asia}, volume={3}, journal={Asian Myrmecology}, author={Guenard, B. and Weiser, M. D. and Dunn, R. R.}, year={2010}, pages={21–28} }
 @article{mcglynn_weiser_dunn_2010, title={More individuals but fewer species: testing the 'more individuals hypothesis' in a diverse tropical fauna}, volume={6}, ISSN={["1744-9561"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-77954997973&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1098/rsbl.2010.0103}, abstractNote={A positive relationship between species richness and productivity is often observed in nature, but the causes remain contentious. One mechanism, the ‘more individuals hypothesis’ (MIH), predicts richness increases monotonically with density, as a function of resource flux. To test the MIH, we manipulated resource abundance in a community of tropical rainforest litter ants and measured richness and density responses. A unimodal relationship between richness and density most closely fitted the control and disturbance (resource removal) treatments in contrast to expectations of the MIH. Resource addition resulted in a monotonic increase in richness relative to density, a shift from the pattern in the control. In the disturbance treatment, richness was greater than in the control, opposite to expectations of the MIH. While large-scale correlations between ant diversity and net primary productivity or temperature are reconcilable with the MIH, key elements of the hypothesis are not supported.}, number={4}, journal={BIOLOGY LETTERS}, author={McGlynn, Terrence P. and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R.}, year={2010}, month={Aug}, pages={490–493} }
 @article{swenson_weiser_2010, title={Plant geography upon the basis of functional traits: An example from eastern North American trees}, volume={91}, number={8}, journal={Ecology (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)}, author={Swenson, N. G. and Weiser, M. D.}, year={2010}, pages={2234–2241} }
 @article{dunn_agosti_andersen_arnan_bruhl_cerda_ellison_fisher_fitzpatrick_gibb_et al._2009, title={Climatic drivers of hemispheric asymmetry in global patterns of ant species richness}, volume={12}, ISSN={["1461-023X"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-62249209482&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01291.x}, abstractNote={Abstract}, number={4}, journal={ECOLOGY LETTERS}, author={Dunn, Robert R. and Agosti, Donat and Andersen, Alan N. and Arnan, Xavier and Bruhl, Carsten A. and Cerda, Xim and Ellison, Aaron M. and Fisher, Brian L. and Fitzpatrick, Matthew C. and Gibb, Heloise and et al.}, year={2009}, month={Apr}, pages={324–333} }