COMPARING PRIMATE COMMUNITIES - A MULTIVARIATE APPROACH

Although there have been many studies of the ecology of primates in co mmunities throughout the world, there have been few attempts to compar e community ecology within and among continents. In this study the eco logical characteristics of the sympatric primate species at eight loca lities-two from each of the major biogeographic areas inhabited by pri mates today-South America, Africa, Madagascar; and Asia-were compared using a multivariate technique (principal components analysis of the c orrelation matrix) to summarize the ten dimensional ecological niche s pace. The most striking clustering of species in ecological multivaria te space is according to phylogeny with closely related species showin g similar ecological Features. Likewise, the ecological characteristic s of individual communities are determined by phylogenetic groups pres ent at each locality or biogeographic region. As a result, communities within any biogeographical region are more similar ecologically to on e another than to communities from other continental areas. In several measures of ecological diversity among the species comprising each co mmunity, the neotropical communities show lower overall diversity than do communities from other continents. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited .