02786nas a2200313   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260001200043653001400055653001400069653001400083653001900097653002900116653003000145653001900175653001500194100002200209700002100231700002500252700002600277700002000303700001800323245011500341856007100456300001400527490000700541520191000548022001402458       2011                            d  c11/201110abody mass10adiversity10aelevation10afire frequency10aplant available moisture10aplant available nutrients10asoil fertility10atree cover1 aFarshid Ahrestani1 aIgnas Heitkönig1 aFrank van Langevelde1 aSrinivas Vaidyanathan1 aM.D. Madhusudan1 aHerbert Prins00aMoisture and nutrients determine the distribution and richness of India’s large herbivore species assemblage  uhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179111001046  a634–6420 v123 a<p>The goal of this study was to test whether body-mass based foraging principles, guided by plant available moisture (PAM) and plant available nutrients (PAN), could explain large mammalian herbivore species distribution and richness in India. We tested (1) whether the occurrence of larger-bodied herbivore species increases with PAM, but is independent of PAN, (2) whether the occurrence of smaller-bodied herbivore species decreases with PAM, but increases with PAN, and (3) whether herbivore species richness is highest in areas with intermediate PAM and high PAN. We analyzed the distribution and richness of the 16 large (&gt;10 kg) herbivore species found in sub-Himalayan mainland India. Since the distributions of large herbivores in India have been altered by historic human activity, we only used India’s largest 76 protected areas as data points, with respect to PAM (log10(rainfall/potential evapotranspiration)), PAN (soil cation exchange capacity), elevation, tree cover, and fire frequency. Using regression and null models to analyze the data, we found positive relations between PAM and the occurrences of the larger-bodied species (elephant and gaur), and negative relations between PAM and the occurrences of smaller-bodied species (chinkara, four-horned antelope and blackbuck). We also found positive relations between the occurrence of the smaller-bodied species and PAN. Large herbivore species richness in India is highest in Kanha and Indravati, areas with high PAN and intermediate PAM. We found that elevation, tree cover and fire frequency were insignificant predictors of herbivore species richness, although elevation and tree cover explained the distribution of a few species. Based on our null model analyses results, we conclude that moisture and soil nutrients are important in determining large herbivore species distribution and richness in sub-Himalayan India.</p>  a1439-1791