In the research entitled “Primate species richness is determined by plant productivity: Implications for conservation” by Richard F. Kay. Richard H. Madden, Carel Van Schaik, and David Higdon, biodiversity is said to occur when the worlds of fauna and flora co-exist productively on the planet.
Natural habitats where plants are most productive are also the places where populations of primary consumers such as primates are greatest. This paper determined the correlation between the richness of primates and productivity of plants. This study’s thesis is: primate species richness is influenced by both historical biogeography and productivity, but not by tree species richness or seasonality.
There are observations in other peer-reviewed researches that are relevant to this study’s hypothesis. Patterns of species richness of local animals are caused by the richness of tree species, productivity of plants in the particular ecosystem, seasonality, habitat heterogeneity, and historically geographical factors.
Also, the richness of plant and tree species creates more and diversified feeding niches for primary consumers, such as primates. Another study found that increased plant productivity leads to increased species richness of animals because, at higher productivity, specialized species maintain viability.
The topic that the researchers/writers tackled was: what influences the local richness of Neotropical primates (platyrrhines)? According to this study’s researchers, there are very few sites for which all the variables of tree species richness, plant productivity, seasonality, habitat heterogeneity, and historically geographical factors have been measured, thereby rendering no conclusive assessment of the independent effect of these possible causal factors. Thus, this study’s researchers avoided the problem by examining the correlations of these variables with the intermediate variable of local rainfall.
The paper hypothesized that the local richness of Neotropical primates (platyrrhines) is related to rainfall, plant species richness, historical factors, and plant productivity. If more plant species bring about more and diversified feeding niches, then the number of primary consumers such as primates would be related to the richness of tree species.
If ripe fruit, a major source of energy for Neotropical primates, is a seasonal produce that is dependent on the length of the dry season, then the number of primate species that can coexist in a forest area is determined primarily by seasonality. If historical and geographic factors have played an important role in shaping platyrrhine primate richness, then there could have been more primate species per site in larger than in smaller geographically restricted areas.
The widely distributed Amazonian species was geographically fragmented during the Pleistocene period into smaller forest fragments, making them genetically divergent. When the geographic isolation was removed, the newly evolved species could have increased species richness. Lastly, if increased plant productivity leads to increased species richness of animals, then a bigger population leads to a more viable species.
