Net primary productivity but not its remote-sensing proxies predict mammal diversity in Andean-Amazonian rainforests.

ABSTRACT: Tropical forests are disappearing, but we have a limited understanding of the factors driving species coexistence in mammal communities of old-growth forest ecosystems. The total energy that is bound by plants is assumed to be a key factor determining mammalian species richness, but accurately measuring energy flows in complex ecosystems is difficult, and most studies therefore rely on remote-sensing-based surrogates of net primary productivity (NPP). We monitored mammal species richness across three seasons using camera traps on 26 study plots along a forested, elevational gradient from 245 to 3588 m above sea level in southeastern Peru for which a unique dataset on field-measured NPP exists. Using linear-regression models and path analysis, we disentangled the effects of climate and NPP

SUBMITTER: Holzmann KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11894361 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature