Species richness — primary productivity relationship of plants and small mammals in the Inner Mongolian steppes, China

Abstract We studied the relationship between primary productivity and plant and small mammal species richness in Inner Mongolian steppes, using data collected from 1980–1987. The productivity-plant species richness pattern was unimodal at our study site and consistent over time. Quadratic terms of regressions of plant species richness on plant aboveground biomass for the 7-year data were either significant ( p p =0·05 or 0·06). However, the productivity-small mammal species richness pattern was not unimodal ( p >0·1). The relationship between small mammal species richness and plant aboveground biomass was linear and negative for 7 years ( p p