Paim Fernanda Pozzan, Valenta Kim, Chapman Colin A, Paglia Adriano Pereira, de Queiroz Helder Lima
Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá, Estrada do Bexiga, 2584, Tefé, AM, 69553-225, Brazil.
Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, 31270-901, Brazil.
Primates. 2018 Jul;59(4):395-404. doi: 10.1007/s10329-018-0659-6. Epub 2018 Mar 10.
Integration between ecology and biogeography provides insights into how niche specialization affects the geographical distribution of species. Given that rivers are not effective barriers to dispersal in three parapatric species of squirrel monkeys (Saimiri vanzolinii, S. cassiquiarensis and S. macrodon) inhabiting floodplain forests of Central Amazonia, we tested whether forest structure and tree diversity may explain species differences in niche specialization and spatial segregation. We sampled 6617 trees of 326 species in three habitats (high várzea, low várzea and chavascal) used by three Saimiri species, and estimated tree species richness in each of them. For each tree, we measured variables known to influence habitat use in primates, such as crown area and presence of lianas, epiphytes and hemi-epiphytes. We used ANOVA to compare these variables and performed multivariate analyses (NMDS, ANOSIM and SIMPER) to evaluate dissimilarities in forest structure among each habitat inhabited by the three Saimiri species. We identified differences in the tree species richness, crown area and presence of lianas, epiphytes and hemi-epiphytes between the three habitats for all Saimiri species. NMDS demonstrated that areas of high and low várzeas occupied by S. vanzolinii were clearly separated from the other species. We also found that different plant species contributed to dissimilarity among Saimiri ranges. Our findings support the hypothesis that tree community structure may promote niche specialization and spatial segregation among primates. We discuss how these patterns could have been favored by historical changes in forest flood patterns, the evolutionary history of Saimiri spp., and past competition.
生态学与生物地理学之间的整合为研究生态位特化如何影响物种的地理分布提供了见解。鉴于在栖息于亚马逊河中部泛滥平原森林的三种近缘松鼠猴（范氏松鼠猴、卡西基亚雷松鼠猴和巨松鼠猴）中，河流并非有效的扩散障碍，我们测试了森林结构和树木多样性是否可以解释物种在生态位特化和空间隔离方面的差异。我们在三种松鼠猴物种所使用的三种栖息地（高洪泛平原、低洪泛平原和查瓦斯卡尔）中对326种物种的6617棵树进行了采样，并估计了每个栖息地中的树种丰富度。对于每棵树，我们测量了已知会影响灵长类动物栖息地利用的变量，例如树冠面积以及藤本植物、附生植物和半附生植物的存在情况。我们使用方差分析来比较这些变量，并进行多变量分析（非度量多维标度法、相似性分析和相似性百分比分析）以评估三种松鼠猴物种所栖息的每个栖息地之间森林结构的差异。我们确定了所有松鼠猴物种在三种栖息地之间的树种丰富度、树冠面积以及藤本植物、附生植物和半附生植物的存在情况存在差异。非度量多维标度法表明，范氏松鼠猴所占据的高、低洪泛平原区域与其他物种明显分开。我们还发现不同的植物物种导致了松鼠猴分布范围之间的差异。我们的研究结果支持了这样的假设，即树木群落结构可能促进灵长类动物之间的生态位特化和空间隔离。我们讨论了森林洪水模式的历史变化、松鼠猴属的进化历史以及过去的竞争如何可能有利于这些模式的形成。
