PRIMATE SPECIES RICHNESS IS DETERMINED BY PLANT PRODUCTIVITY - IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION

The explanation of patterns in species richness ranks among the most i mportant tasks of ecology, Current theories emphasize the interaction between historical and geographical factors affecting the size of the regional species pool and of locally acting processes such as competit ive exclusion, disturbance, productivity, and seasonality, Local speci es richness, or alpha diversity, of plants and primary consumers has b een claimed to peak in habitats of low and intermediate productivity, which, if true, has major implications for conservation, Here, by cont rast, we show that local richness of Neotropical primates (platyrrhine s) is influenced by both historical biogeography and productivity but not by tree species richness or seasonality, This pattern indicates th at habitats with the highest plant productivity are also the richest f or many important primary consumers, We show further that fragmentatio n of Amazonian rain forests in the Pleistocene, if it occurred, appear s to have had a negligible influence on primate alpha species richness .