The role of habitat and productivity in structuring desert rodent communities

In deserts a humped relationship seems to exist between mean annual rainfall, a measure of productivity, and species diversity of desert rodents. Diversity of desert rodents is affected by and correlated with habitat structure of the habitat. Structure of the habitat, measured as % perennial cover, is significantly and negatively correlated with species diversity. A significant positive correlation exists between the productivity of the habitat, measured as % annual cover, and rodent diversity. Three hypotheses were tested: 1) rodent diversity is determined only by productivity, 2) structure enhances coexistence, and 3) rodent diversity is determined by the area. Results of stepwise multiple regression rejected the hypotheses 1 and 2. -from Author