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2 Programa de P os-Graduac ßão em Entomologia, INPA, CP 2223, CEP 69080-971, Manaus, AM, Brazil 3 Programa de P os-Graduac ßão em Ecologia, INPA, CP 2223, CEP 69080-971, ABSTRACTArthropod abundance and diversity are remarkable in tropical forests, but are also spatially patchy. This has been attributed either to resources, predators, abiotic conditions or disturbances, but whether such factors may simultaneously shape arthropod assemblage structure is little known. We used cockroaches to test for multiple environmental controls on assemblage structure in 25 km 2 of Amazonian forest. We performed nocturnal, direct searches for cockroaches in 30 plots (250 m 9 2 m) during two seasons, and gathered data on biotic and abiotic factors from previous studies. Cockroach abundance increased with dry litter mass, a measure of resource amount, while species richness increased with litter phosphorus content, a measure of resource availability. Cockroach abundance and species richness decreased with ant relative abundance. Cockroach species composition changed along the gradient of: (1) soil clay content, which correlates with a broad differentiation between flood-prone and non-flooded forest; (2) soil relative moisture, consistent with known interspecific variation in desiccation tolerance; and (3) according to the abundance of ants, a potential predator. Turnover in species composition was correlated with abiotic conditions-sorting species according to physiological requirements and to disturbancerelated life history traits-and to ants' selective pressure. Cockroach abundance, diversity, and composition seem to be controlled by distinct sets of environmental factors, but predators which were represented by ants, emerged as a common factor underlying cockroach distribution. Such patterns of community structure may have been previously overlooked by undue focus on single or a few factors, and may be common to tropical forest arthropods.Abstract in Portuguese is available in the online version of this article.

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To understand better the effects of niche and neutral processes is important to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of each process, mainly if the environmental factors are geographically structured neglecting important indirect and synergic effects. We sampled ground-dwelling ant species on 126 plots distributed across eight sampling sites along a broad environmental gradient in Central Amazonia. Structural equation modelling was employed to quantify direct and indirect effects of geographic distance, the Amazon River’s opposite margins, and environmental differences in temperature, precipitation and vegetation structure (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) on ant beta diversity (Jaccard’s dissimilarity). We found that geographic distance and NDVI differences had major direct effects on ant beta diversity. The major effect of temperature was indirect through NDVI, whereas precipitation had no detectable effect on beta diversity. The Amazon River had a weak influence on the ant composition dissimilarity. Our results challenge the major role often ascribed to riverine barriers in the diversification and distribution of Amazonian biota. Rather, ant compositional dissimilarity seems to be mainly driven by a combination of dispersal limitation and selection imposed by vegetation features and, indirectly, by temperature. We suggest that as NDVI differences decrease with geographic distance in the region, isolation by distance may have favoured phenotypic convergence between ant communities in the northern and southern borders of the Amazon Basin.