2.3.1 Assessing patterns in microclimate and microhabitat
structure
We quantified microclimate (air temperature, relative humidity and PPFD)
as well as changes in microhabitat structure (total leaf area) along
both vertical and horizontal gradients. To be consistent with the
assemblage data, we calculated the mean air temperature and relative
humidity at the same scale (5 m vertical intervals) at which the ants
were sampled by either using the data close to the 5 m interval point or
using the average between sampling points. We expect microclimate and
microhabitat structure to change directionally along vertical gradients
due to canopy buffering effects, but to vary in a non-directional manner
horizontally. As such, we ran separately four linear regression models
for air temperature, relative humidity, PPFD and leaf area, with
vertical height above ground as a continuous explanatory variable and
horizontal position of vertical transects as a categorical explanatory
variable.