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14 results for “Avian seed dispersal”
Seed dispersal by waterbirds: a mechanistic understanding by simulating avian digestion
<p>Waterbirds disperse plant species via ingestion and egestion of seeds (endozoochory). However, our understanding about the regulating effects of seed traits, underlying mechanisms and possible (co)evolutionary processes is limited by our traditional reliance on data from feeding experiments with living waterbirds. Here, we overcome these limitations by developing and applying a new bioassay that realistically simulates digestive processes for Anseriformes waterbirds. We test three hypotheses: (1) seed survival and germination are most affected by mechanical digestion in the waterbird gizzard; (2) seed size, hardness, imbibition and shape regulate seed survival; and (3) plants growing in aquatic habitats benefit most from endozoochory by waterbirds. Experiments with 28,200 seeds of 48 plant species demonstrated species-specific seed survival that was entirely determined by digestion in the avian gizzard. Intestinal digestion did not affect seed survival but affected seed establishment (germinability and germination time) for 21% of the species. Large, hard seeds survived the simulations the best, in contrast to generally higher seed survival for smaller seeds during in vivo experiments. This mechanistically explains that small seeds escape digestive processes rather than being inherently more resistant (the 'escape mechanism'), while large seeds are retained until fully digested or regurgitated (the 'resistance and regurgitation mechanism'). Plants growing in wetter habitats had similar seed survival, but digestive processes stimulated their germinability and accelerated their germination more than for terrestrial plants. This indicates a relative advantage of endozoochory for plant species growing in wet habitats, possibly reflecting a co-evolutionary response related to dormancy breaking by gut passage. Simulating seed gut passage using a bioassay allowed establishing mechanisms and identifying relevant seed traits involved in seed dispersal by waterbirds. This information enhances our understanding of how animal species shape plant species distributions, which is extremely relevant now that current anthropogenic pressures already severely impact plant dispersal capacities.</p>
Data from: Non-native mammals are weak candidates to substitute ecological function of native avian seed-dispersers in an island ecosystem
<p>Although prominent examples exist of non-native species causing substantial ecological harm, many have neutral or positive effects, including filling surrogate roles once performed by extinct native organisms. We tested the ecological roles of two non-native mammals as seed dispersers or seed predators in Guåhan, which, due to invasive brown treesnakes (<em>Boiga</em> <em>irregularis</em>), is devoid of native seed dispersers – birds and bats. We conducted feeding trials with captive rats (<em>Rattus</em> spp.), which are present but uncommon due to predation by snakes, and pigs (<em>Sus</em> <em>scrofa</em>), which are abundant. We examined if and how they interacted with common forest fruits. We then compared how any gut-passed or handled seeds germinated compared to seeds left in whole fruit or depulped seeds.</p> <p>Rats and pigs interacted with most of the fruits and seeds (>80%) that they were fed. Of those, most seeds were destroyed – 78% for rats and 90% for pigs, across both native and non-native plant species. Compared to seeds germinating within whole fruits, rats improved germination of the seeds that they handled without ingesting, while pigs diminished the germination of seeds that they handled. The small percentage of seeds (approximately 1.5% for rats and 5% for pigs) that survived gut passage germinated in higher proportions than those in whole fruits. Percentages of seed survival to germination are lower than those found in similar studies with native avian frugivores. Our results indicate that pigs and rats have mixed effects on seeds, but are not suitable surrogates for native seed dispersers.</p>
Data from: Competing for seed dispersal: evidence for the role of avian seed hoarders in mediating apparent predation among oaks
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Seed dispersal by waterbirds: a mechanistic understanding by simulating avian digestion
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Data from: How does avian seed dispersal shape the structure of early successional tropical forests?
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Data from: Non-native mammals are weak candidates to substitute ecological function of native avian seed-dispersers in an island ecosystem
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Fruit resource provisioning for avian frugivores: the overlooked side of effectiveness in seed dispersal mutualisms
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Data from: Quantifying species contributions to ecosystem processes: a global assessment of functional trait and phylogenetic metrics across avian seed-dispersal networks
Quantifying the role of biodiversity in ecosystems not only requires understanding the links between species and the ecological functions and services they provide, but also how these factors relate to measurable indices, such as functional traits and phylogenetic diversity. However, these relationships remain poorly understood, especially for heterotrophic organisms within complex ecological networks. Here, we assemble data on avian traits across a global sample of mutualistic plant–frugivore networks to critically assess how the functional roles of frugivores are associated with their intrinsic traits, as well as their evolutionary and functional distinctiveness. We find strong evidence for niche complementarity, with phenotypically and phylogenetically distinct birds interacting with more unique sets of plants. However, interaction strengths—the number of plant species dependent on a frugivore—were unrelated to evolutionary or functional distinctiveness, largely because distinct frugivores tend to be locally rare, and thus have fewer connections across the network. Instead, interaction strengths were better predicted by intrinsic traits, including body size, gape width and dietary specialization. Our analysis provides general support for the use of traits in quantifying species ecological functions, but also highlights the need to go beyond simple metrics of functional or phylogenetic diversity to consider the multiple pathways through which traits may determine ecological processes.
Persistence of seed dispersal in agroecosystems: effects of landscape modification and intensive soil management practices in avian frugivores, frugivory and seed deposition in olive croplands
<p>Farming impacts on animal-mediated seed dispersal through mechanisms operating at least at two spatial scales: first, at the landscape scale, through habitat loss and land conversion to agriculture/livestock grazing, and second, by local intensification (farm scale) of the agricultural practices. Nonetheless, these two scales of farming impact on the seed dispersal function have been rarely integrated. In particular, studies evaluating the effect of agriculture in the seed dispersal function of frugivorous birds in Mediterranean ecosystems are lacking. We evaluate the role of the landscape transformation, from fruit-rich woodland habitats to olive grove landscapes, together with the local intensive practices of soil management on the persistence of the seed dispersal function for Mediterranean fleshy-fruited plants in olive landscapes of south Spain.</p> <p>We used bird censuses, mist-nets and seed traps to characterize avian frugivore assemblages, frugivory, and seed deposition in seminatural woodland habitat (SNWH) patches and olive fields of 40 olives farms of 20 localities distributed across the whole range of olive cultivation in Andalusia (southern Spain).</p> <p>We found that despite of a still remarkable dispersal function in olive grove landscapes, avian frugivore abundance and diversity, frugivory, and seed arrival decreased in olive fields compared to SNWH patches. Likewise, SNWH cover loss and/or olive growing expansion decreased avian frugivory and seed arrival. Interestingly, habitat effects in the olive farms often depended on the landscape context. In particular, less diverse fruit-eating bird assemblages pooled in SNWH patches as olive grove cover increased or SNWH decreased in the landscape, while remained relatively invariant in the olive fields. Finally, compared to conventional intensive agriculture, low-intensity management increased frugivory and seed deposition.</p> <p>We conclude that olive fields are less permeable to frugivores than expected by its agroforest-like nature, and that presence of SNWH patches is crucial for the maintenance of frugivory and seed dispersal in agricultural landscapes. Results evidence that woodland habitat loss by olive expansion and the intensive practices seriously threaten the dispersal service in olive-dominated landscapes. Maintenance, restoration and promotion of woodland patches should be prioritized for the conservation of the seed dispersal service and for enhancing the functional connectivity in human-shaped olive landscapes.</p>
Data from: Exploring the interaction of avian frugivory and plant spatial heterogeneity and its effect on seed dispersal kernels using a simulation model
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Data from: Quantifying species contributions to ecosystem processes: a global assessment of functional trait and phylogenetic metrics across avian seed-dispersal networks
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Persistence of seed dispersal in agroecosystems: effects of landscape modification and intensive soil management practices in avian frugivores, frugivory and seed deposition in olive croplands
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Avian seed dispersal may be insufficient for plants to track future temperature change on tropical mountains - data
<span><b>Abstract</b></span> <p><strong>Aim</strong>: Climate change causes species' range shifts globally. Terrestrial plant species often lag behind temperature shifts, and it is unclear to what extent animal-dispersed plants can track climate change. Here, we estimate the ability of bird-dispersed plant species to track future temperature change on a tropical mountain.</p> <p><b>Location: </b>Tropical elevational gradient (500–3500 m a.s.l.) in the Manú biosphere reserve, Peru</p> <p><b>Time period: </b>1960–1990 to 2061–2080</p> <p><b>Taxa: </b>Fleshy-fruited plants, avian frugivores</p> <p><b>Methods: </b>Using simulations based on the functional traits of avian frugivores and fruiting plants, we quantified the number of long-distance dispersal (LDD) events that woody plant species would require to track projected temperature shifts on a tropical mountain by the year 2070 under different greenhouse gas emission scenarios (RCP 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5). We applied this approach to 343 bird-dispersed woody plant species.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Our simulations reveal that bird-dispersed plants differ in their climate-tracking ability, with large-fruited and canopy plants exhibiting a higher climate-tracking ability. Our simulations also suggest that even under scenarios of strong and intermediate mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (RCP 2.6 and 4.5), sufficient upslope dispersal would require several LDD events by 2070, which is unlikely for the majority of woody plant species. Furthermore, the ability of plant species to track future temperature changes increased in simulations with a low degree of trait matching between plants and birds, suggesting that plants in generalised seed-dispersal systems may be more resilient to climate change.</p> <p><b>Main conclusion:</b> Our study illustrates how plant and animal functional traits can inform predictive models of species dispersal and range shifts under climate change and suggests that the biodiversity of tropical mountain ecosystems is highly vulnerable to future warming. The increasing availability of functional trait data for plants and animals globally will allow parameterisation of similar models for many other seed-dispersal systems.</p>
Avian seed dispersal may be insufficient for plants to track future temperature change on tropical mountains
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