976 | wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/geb Global Ecol Biogeogr. 2019;28:976–991. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Received: 18 April 2018 | Revised: 1 October 2018 | Accepted: 16 October 2018 DOI: 10.1111/geb.12908 RESEARCH PAPER Local temperature and ecological similarity drive distributional dynamics of tropical mammals worldwide Lydia Beaudrot 1,2 | Miguel A. Acevedo 3 | Jean‐Philippe Lessard 4 | Alex Zvoleff 5 | Patrick A. Jansen 6,7 | Douglas Sheil 8 | Francesco Rovero 9 | Timothy O’Brien 10 | Eileen Larney 11 | Christine Fletcher 12 | Sandy Andelman 10,13 | Jorge Ahumada 5,14 1 Department of BioSciences, Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, Texas 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 3 Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 4 Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 5 Moore Center for Science, Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia 6 Center for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, , República de Panamá 7 Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands 8 Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management (INA), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Ås, Norway 9 Tropical Biodiversity Section, MUSE – Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy 10 Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York 11 Centre ValBio, Ifanadiana, Madagascar 12 Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong, Malaysia 13 Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham, North Carolina 14 Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona Correspondence Lydia Beaudrot, Department of BioSciences, Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, W100 George R. Brown Hall, 6100 Main Street, P.O. Box 1892, MS‐140, Houston, TX 77251. Email: beaudrot@rice.edu Present Address Francesco Rovero, Department of Biology, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy Sandy Andelman, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York Editor: Veronique Boucher‐Lalonde Abstract Aim: Identifying the underlying drivers of species’ distributional dynamics is critical for predicting change and managing biological diversity. While anthropogenic factors such as climate change can affect species distributions through time, other naturally occurring ecological processes can also have an influence. Theory predicts that inter‐ actions between species can influence distributional dynamics, yet empirical evi‐ dence remains sparse. A powerful approach is to monitor and model local colonization and extinction—the processes that generate change in distributions over time—and to identify their abiotic and biotic associations. Intensive camera‐trap monitoring provides an opportunity to assess the role of temperature and species interactions in the colonization and extinction dynamics of tropical mammals, many of which are species of conservation concern. Using data from a pan‐tropical monitoring network, we examined how short‐term local temperature change and ecological similarity be‐ tween species (a proxy for the strength of species interactions) influenced the pro‐ cesses that drive distributional shifts. Location: Tropical forests worldwide. Time period: 2007–2016. Major taxa studied: Terrestrial mammals.