Patterns of ecological diversity in neotropical primates (Platyrrhini)

FERGNANI, PAULA N.; RUGGIERO, ADRIANA

Mendoza, Argentina

Congreso; The 10th International Mammal Congress; 2009

1) CCT CONICET Mendoza (CRICYT), 2) CONICET, 3) IADIZA, 4) Grupo de Investigaciones de la Biodiversidad (IADIZA - CONICET), 5) International Federation of Mammalogists - IFM, 6) Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de los Mamíferos - SAREM

We studied the spatial variation in ecological diversity in Neotropical primates and the relationship between those patterns and primate species richness. Using information from bibliography we elaborated a database which contains ecological attributes from the 127 species. We selected features related to 1) activity patterns, 2) vertical use of space, 3) home range, 4) diet, 5) type of locomotion, 6) type of vision, 7) body mass. Using the Gower’s Index we obtained a dissimilarity matrix, from which we elaborated a dendrogram of the ecological relationships between neotropical primates species and we determined functional-ecological groups. Using the distributional maps available from Nature Serve we calculated two measures of ecological diversity per cell (based on a grid map of America at a resolution of 1º x 1º ): 1) the number of functional-ecological groups and 2) the average ecological diversity per species pairs. Finally, we elaborated a map of species richness that we compared with maps obtained for each ecological variable.