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. 2019 Jan 16;9(4):2142-2148.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.4908. eCollection 2019 Feb.

Climate and food diversity as drivers of mammal diversity in Inner Mongolia

Gang Feng  1 , Hui Yan  2 , Xueting Yang  1
Affiliations

Climate and food diversity as drivers of mammal diversity in Inner Mongolia

Gang Feng et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

Traditionally, geographical distribution of biodiversity is assumed to be codetermined by multiple factors, for example, temperature, precipitation, environmental heterogeneity, and biotic interactions. However, few studies have simultaneously compared the relative roles of these factors in shaping the mammal diversity patterns for different feeding groups, that is, herbivores, insectivores, and carnivores. In this study, we assessed the relations between mammal diversity and current climate (mean annual temperature and precipitation), altitudinal range as well as mammal's food diversity in Inner Mongolia. Our results showed that the species richness for the three feeding guilds of mammals consistently increased with their food diversity, that is, species richness of plants, insects, and rodents. Mammal diversity also significantly decreased with mean annual temperature and precipitation. Random Forest models indicated that climate and food diversity were always included in the combinations of variables most associated with mammal diversity. Our findings suggest that while climate is an important predictor of large scale distribution of mammal diversity, biotic interactions, that is, food diversity, could also play important roles.

Keywords: biotic interactions; current climate; environmental heterogeneity; food diversity; species area relationships; species richness.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Maps of species richness for herbivores, insectivores, carnivores, plants, insects, rodents, mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), altitudinal range (ALT Range). The white regions are counties without species distribution information
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatter plot of species richness of herbivores, insectivores, carnivores, and their three most associated variables. Mammal diversity is positively correlated with food diversity and county area. * p < 0.01
Figure 3
Figure 3
Results of structural equation models examining the direct and indirect effects of county area (Area), mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT), altitudinal range (ALT Range), and food diversity (species richness of plant, insect and rodent) on mammal (herbivore [a]; insectivore [b]; carnivore [c]) diversity. Significant standardized regression coefficients were given. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
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