Plant diversity in the diet of Costa Rican primates in contrasting habitats: a meta-analysis

Abstract

AbstractIn human-modified tropical landscapes, the survival of arboreal vertebrates, particularly primates, depends on their plant dietary diversity. Here, we assessed diversity of plants included in the diet of Costa Rican non-human primates, CR-NHP (i.e.Alouatta palliata palliata,Ateles geoffroyi,Cebus imitator, andSaimiri oerstedii) inhabiting different habitat types across the country. Specifically, we assessed by analyzing 37 published and unpublished datasets: (i) richness and dietary α-plant diversity, (ii) the β-diversity of dietary plant species and the relative importance of plant species turnover and nestedness contributing to these patterns, and (iii) the main ecological drivers of the observed patterns in dietary plant . Diet data were available for 34Alouatta, 16Cebus, 8Ateles, and 5Saimirigroups. Overall dietary plant species richness was higher inAlouatta(476 spp.), followed byAteles(329 spp.),Cebus(236 spp.), andSaimiri(183 spp.). However, rarefaction curves showed that α-diversity of plant species was higher inAtelesthan in the other three primate species. The γ-diversity of plants was 868 species (95% C.I.=829-907 species). The three most frequently reported food species for all CR-NHP wereSpondias mombin,Bursera simaruba, andSamanea saman. In general, plant species turnover, rather than nestedness, explained the dissimilarity in plant diet diversity (βsim> 0.60) of CR_NHP. Finally, primate species, habitat type (life zone and disturbance level) and, to a lesser degree, sampling effort were the best predictors of the dietary plant assemblages. Our findings suggest that CR-NHP diets were diverse, even in severely-disturbed habitats.