Coincidence and mismatch of biodiversity hotspots: a global survey for the order, primates

A global survey of a well-studied order of tropical mammals, primates, is used to explore the use of diversity hotspots in conservation. The results at this shallow taxonomic level match those for most cross-phylum analyses. Overlap of hotspots for species, genera, trait-complexes, families, and threatened species varies with the continent, and the comparison. Overlap is best in Africa and Madagascar, and poorest in Asia, but reasons for the differences need exploring. A complete mismatch of taxonomic and threatened species hotspots in South America, resulting from the mismatch of the hotspots of diversity and human destruction, suggests that conservation biologist's hotspot approach could benefit from adding hotspots of human threat to the analysis of diversity hotspots. Conservationists' use of hotspot analysis seems to have been largely empirical. If analysis of single orders can contribute to conservation, application of biogeographic theory to our knowledge of the distribution of the order, primates, is the next step. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.