Table 1.

Relationships between abiotic predictor variables, plant and vertebrate consumer species richness. (AET: actual evapotranspiration. Env refers to models including main effects of the independent variables Area (size of the geographical unit; km²), Temp (mean annual temperature; °C), WetDays (mean annual number of days with precipitation greater than 1 mm; d yr⁻¹), TopoDiv (topographic heterogeneity measured as maximum elevational range; m) and HabDiv (number of different ecosystems; n). All independent and dependent variables were log-transformed. Slopes (b), tests for slopes differing from zero (t) and according p-values are reported. Akaike information criterion (AIC) values and likelihood-based r²-values are provided as measures of fit. r²-values for SLMs refer to the non-spatial component of the model fit. Absolute Moran's I of residuals are greater than 0.60 and significant for all GLMs, and less than 0.07 and not significant for all SLMs. Significance coding: ^*p≤0.05; ^***p≤0.001.)

		GLM				SLM
		b	t	AIC	r2	b	t	AIC	r2
Birds	Area	0.04	1.16	624.2	0.00	0.12	8.58***	−505.8	0.10
	AET	0.88	22.73***	246.1	0.45	0.54	15.24***	−633.5	0.27
	Plants	0.71	19.56***	325.0	0.38	0.32	14.49***	−618.0	0.25
	AET+Plants			176.4	0.51			−725.4	0.37
	Env			−125.4	0.70			−861.4	0.90
	Env+Plants			−127.2	0.70			−868.5	0.91
Mammals	Area	0.12	5.52***	−42.8	0.05	0.13	11.25***	−763.7	0.16
	AET	0.47	18.74***	−293.5	0.36	0.35	11.11***	−760.2	0.16
	Plants	0.43	19.95***	−323.1	0.38	0.28	14.61***	−833.1	0.25
	AET+Plants			−396.2	0.45			−870.8	0.29
	Env			−486.6	0.53			−1013.0	0.79
	Env+Plants			−503.2	0.54			−1024.0	0.80
Endotherms	Area	0.09	3.38***	191.8	0.02	0.12	10.83***	−766.5	0.15
	AET	0.62	22.33***	−166.4	0.44	0.41	13.52***	−818.6	0.22
	Plants	0.54	21.60***	−147.9	0.42	0.29	15.50***	−863.5	0.27
	AET+Plants			−273.2	0.53			−934.6	0.35
	Env			−460.2	0.65			−1111.5	0.87
	Env+Plants			−472.8	0.66			−1122.7	0.88
Primary	Area	0.13	4.90***	200.0	0.04	0.15	12.75***	−739.2	0.20
	AET	0.59	19.83***	−83.5	0.38	0.40	12.19***	−728.2	0.19
	Plants	0.54	20.76***	−106.6	0.40	0.31	16.13***	−814.3	0.29
	AET+Plants			−192.5	0.48			−863.3	0.34
	Env			−314.9	0.58			−1042.1	0.87
	Env+Plants			−326.9	0.58			−1053.6	0.87
Higher-level	Area	0.05	2.06*	195.0	0.01	0.10	9.38***	−801.8	0.12
	AET	0.62	22.57***	−176.3	0.45	0.41	14.12***	−891.9	0.24
	Plants	0.53	20.81***	−132.3	0.41	0.26	14.47***	−900.8	0.25
	AET+Plants			−267.8	0.52			−987.1	0.34
	Env			−541.7	0.69			−1143.2	0.88
	Env+Plants			−553.0	0.70			−1153.5	0.88