Asian primate species richness correlates with rainfall

Previous studies of meta-analyses found significantly positive correlations between primate species richness and rainfall for Africa, Madagascar and the Neotropics, with the exception of Asia, leaving the open question whether that anomaly is the result of sampling bias, biogeography, or some other...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-01, Vol.8 (1), p.e54995-e54995
Main Authors: Wang, Yi-Chen, Srivathsan, Amrita, Feng, Chen-Chieh, Salim, Agus, Shekelle, Myron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal behavior
Animals
Annual rainfall
Asia, Southeastern
Bias
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Biology
Correlation
Correlation analysis
Data processing
Geographic information systems
Geography
Information processing
Islands
Mean annual precipitation
Meta-analysis
Primates
Primates - classification
Rain
Rainfall
Rainfall data
Regression analysis
Sampling
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Spatial Analysis
Species richness
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Summary:Previous studies of meta-analyses found significantly positive correlations between primate species richness and rainfall for Africa, Madagascar and the Neotropics, with the exception of Asia, leaving the open question whether that anomaly is the result of sampling bias, biogeography, or some other factor. This study re-examines the question using modelled data, with primate species richness data from the Southeast Asian Mammals Databank and rainfall data from the Climatic Research Unit. Data processing with Geographical Information Systems resulted in 390 sample points. Reduced major axis and ordinary least squares regressions were employed to examine the relationship for six regions, including the whole study area of Southeast Asia, and the subareas of Huxley West, Huxley East, Mainland Southeast Asia, Borneo, and Sumatra. The results showed a significant positive relationship between primate species richness and mean annual rainfall for Southeast Asia (r = 0.26, P
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0054995