Large-scale Geographic Pattern of Primate Species Richness in Mainland China at Different Spatial Resolution and Its Relationship to Environmental Factors and Human Activities

Among many hypotheses proposed to explain large-scale patterns of species richness,three alternative versions of ecological hypothesis,the species-energy,habitat heterogeneity and contemporary climate hypotheses have shown widespread empirical support as the primary determinants of species richness.The database of 26 environmental variables,indicators of the different hypotheses,and human density and crop-agricultural area,indicators of the intensity of human impacts were used to explore large-scale patterns of species richness and their environmental determinants for primate in Mainland China using eigenvector-based spatial filters models(SEVM) at 100 km×100 km,200 km×200 km and 400 km×400 km spatial resolution.The results suggested that primate species richness varied significantly on latitudinal gradients,decreasing from south to north.Species richness peaked mainly in mountain province,including western Yunnan and borderland province in southern Yunnan in southern China,but few species richness were found in the northeastern China,northern China,Mongolia-Xinjiang China and Qinghai-Tibet China at all spatial resolutions.At the different resolutions,the primary predictors of large-scale primate species richness patterns in Mainland China were not all the same.However,ambient-energy hypothesis(indicated by potential evapotranspiration) and climate hypothesis(indicated by annual mean temperature) may work together and best explain patterns of primate species richness in Mainland China at different spatial resolution.Our findings showed that the intensity of human impacts had effects on large-scale patterns of primate species richness when considering the intensity of human impacts together with environmental variables.Our results provide the necessary conservation implications for habitat loss of primate species richness.