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56 results for “Seed disperser effectiveness”
Seed dispersal data for Warneke et al "Habitat fragmentation alters the distance of abiotic seed dispersal through edge effects and direction of dispersal"
This csv file contains seed dispersal data for five species (Carphephorus bellidifolius, Aristida beyrichiana, Liatris squarrulosa, Sorghastrum secundum, and Anthenantia villosa). Data were collected at the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, South Carolina, United States. Data were collected between November 17, 2009, to January 22, 2010 and were collected using the methods outlined in this document.
Forest cover and connectivity have pervasive effects on the maintenance of evolutionary distinct interactions in seed dispersal networks
<p>This Data set contain 29 table of weighted interaction network between plants (columns) and frugivore birds from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest used in the manuscript "Forest cover and connectivity have pervasive effects on the maintenance of evolutionary distinct interactions in seed dispersal networks" published in Oikos Journal.</p>
Data from: Seed fate in ant-mediated dispersal: Seed dispersal effectiveness in the Ectatomma ruidum (Formicidae) - Zanthoyxlum ekmanii (Rutaceae) system
<p>Plants are often dispersal limited relying on passive or active agents to find suitable microhabitats for germination. Seeds of pioneer tree species, for example, require light gaps for growth but have short median dispersal distances and often do not provide a food reward to encourage animal dispersal. Zanthoxylum ekmanii seeds are frequently moved by ants but evaluating the effectiveness of ant-mediated seed removal requires knowledge of the species moving the seeds, how far they are moved, and the deposition site. To assess the effectiveness of ants as seed dispersers of Z. ekmanii, we utilized the seed dispersal effectiveness framework. We tracked the movement of seeds from caches on the forest floor, revealing that foragers of Ectatomma ruidum moved 32.8% of seeds an average first distance of 99.8 cm with 68.3% of those seeds taken into a colony. The quality of deposition location was assessed using a seedling emergence study where freshly germinated seeds were buried at different depths. Seedlings were primarily able to emerge from the shallowest depths. Wax castings of E. ruidum colonies demonstrated that seeds brought into the colony were deposited in chambers that had larvae present and experienced more damage than seeds unhandled by ants. Foragers, however, did not have a strong enough bite force to rupture Z. ekmanii seeds likely because their muscle morphology is not structured to maximize force generation. Overall, E. ruidum may help fine tune deposition location, incorporating seeds into the topsoil, though few seeds will likely emerge if soil bioturbation is low.</p>
Experimental corridor effects on ant seed dispersal
<p>Habitat fragmentation impacts ecosystems worldwide through habitat loss, reduced connectivity, and edge effects. Yet, these landscape factors are often confounded, leaving much to be investigated about their relative effects, especially on species interactions. In a landscape experiment, we investigated the consequences of connectivity and edge effects for seed dispersal by ants. We found that ants dispersed seeds farther in habitat patches connected by corridors, but only in patch centers. We did not see an effect on the total number of seeds moved or the rate ants detected seeds. Furthermore, we did not see any differences in ant community composition across patch types, suggesting that shifts in ant behavior or other factors increased ant seed dispersal in patches connected by corridors. Long distance seed dispersal by ants that requires an accumulation of short distance dispersal events over generations may be an underappreciated mechanism through which corridors increase plant diversity. The following data were made publicly available to go along with our paper in <em>Ecosphere</em> (Burt et al. 2022). Please read metadata file for additional information.</p>
Data from: Seed fate in ant-mediated dispersal: Seed dispersal effectiveness in the Ectatomma ruidum (Formicidae) - Zanthoyxlum ekmanii (Rutaceae) system
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Data from: Seed-dispersal networks in tropical forest fragments: area effects, remnant species, and interaction diversity
<p>Seed dispersal interactions involve key ecological processes in tropical forests that help to maintain ecosystem functioning. Yet this functionality may be threatened by increasing habitat loss, defaunation and fragmentation. However, generalist species, and their interactions, can benefit from the habitat change caused by human disturbance while more specialized interactions mostly disappear. Therefore changes in the structure of the local, within fragment, networks can be expected. Here we investigated how the structure of seed-dispersal networks changes along a gradient of increasing habitat fragmentation. We analysed 16 bird seed-dispersal assemblages from forest fragments of a biodiversity-rich ecosystem. We found significant species-, interaction- and network-area relationships, yet the later was determined by the number of species remaining in each community. The number of frugivorous bird and plant species, their interactions, and the number of links per species decreases as area is lost in the fragmented landscape. In contrast, network nestedness has a negative relationship with fragment area, suggesting an increasing generalization of the network structure in the gradient of fragmentation. Network specialization was not significantly affected by area, indicating that some network properties may be invariant to disturbance. Still, the local extinction of partner species, paralleled by a loss of interactions and specialist-specialist bird-plant seed dispersal associations suggests the functional homogenization of the system as area is lost. Our study provides empirical evidence for network-area relationships driven by the presence/absence of remnant species and the interactions they perform.</p>
Data from: The effects of human-altered habitat spatial pattern on frugivory and seed dispersal: a global meta-analysis
<p>Seed dispersal by frugivorous animals is important for plant mobility, regeneration, and persistence. Human-caused landscape change is thought to disrupt seed dispersal, but evidence is scarce. We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis on the effects of habitat spatial pattern on frugivory and seed dispersal. We found 233 effects from 71 studies. At a patch or local scale, altered habitat spatial pattern was measured as declining patch size, increasing patch isolation, or habitat edge (vs. interior). At a landscape scale it was measured as declining amount of habitat, increasing mean patch isolation, increasing number of patches, or increasing habitat edge in the landscape.</p> <p>We found overall negative effects of altered habitat spatial pattern on: (i) the quantity of frugivory or seed dispersal, (ii) the number of species involved in a plant-frugivore interaction, and (iii) seed dispersal distance. Moderator variable analysis was only possible for the first of these. It revealed negative responses of the quantity of frugivory or seed dispersal to habitat loss at both the local scale (declining patch size), and the landscape scale (declining habitat amount), but little evidence for a response to habitat edge at either scale. In addition, altered habitat spatial pattern reduced the quantity of frugivory or seed dispersal more strongly in temperate than tropical areas. Finally, the few-recorded effects of landscape-scale fragmentation per se (increasing patch density or edge density) on the quantity of frugivory or seed dispersal were mixed and weak. Our meta-analysis reinforces the notion that habitat loss is a major threat to frugivory and seed dispersal by animals, and reveals an insufficiency of studies of the effects of habitat fragmentation per se. Thus, based on the current literature, we conclude that maintaining and increasing habitat amount is vital for maintaining seed dispersal by frugivorous animals.</p>
Forest cover and connectivity have pervasive effects on the maintenance of evolutionary distinct interactions in seed dispersal networks
<p>Seed dispersal by animals is one of the most important ecological processes in tropical forests, entailing millions of years of evolutionary adaptations of plants and frugivorous animals forming networks of interactions that, ultimately, contribute to the resilience of such forests. We analyze 29 seed dispersal networks in the threatened Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, with data on the frequency of feeding visits by birds to fruiting plants to answer: (1) which are the effects of forest cover and landscape connectivity on the maintenance of phylogenetic diversity (PD) of interacting birds and plants and the evolutionary distinctiveness of the interactions (EDi) between them; and (2) how EDi and plant/bird PD affects the robustness of the interaction networks? We found that forest cover positively influences both plant and bird PD and EDi. Landscape connectivity is an important predictor of bird PD, but not plant PD, suggesting that the spatial arrangement of forest remnants is essential for guaranteeing bird movement among forest fragments. Furthermore, interaction networks of areas with higher PD and EDi had great robustness to the simulated extinction of species, which underscore the importance of larger forest blocks for conserving evolutionary information and, consequently, the health and natural resistance of seed dispersal networks against environmental change.</p>
Legacy effects of seed dispersal mechanisms shape the spatial interaction network of plant species in Mediterranean forests
<p>1. Seed dispersal by frugivores plays a key role in structuring and maintaining tree diversity in forests. However, little is known about how the spatial legacy of seed dispersal and early recruitment shapes spatial patterns and the spatial interaction network of plant species in mature forest communities.</p> <p>2. We analysed two fully mapped mixed Pine-Oak forest communities using spatial point pattern analysis to determine (i) the detailed structure of the intraspecific spatial patterns of saplings and adults, (ii) the intra- and interspecific spatial interaction of saplings, adults, and saplings relative to adults, (iii) the spatial patterns of species richness at the community level, and (iv) whether seed dispersal mechanisms affect the plant-plant interaction networks and the ratio of adult to sapling neighbourhood densities used as surrogate for spatial self-thinning.</p> <p>3. The intraspecific spatial patterns of saplings and adults showed in general complex nested cluster structures that were similar for sapling and adult stages, despite of substantial self-thinning in some dry-fruited species. The spatial network of saplings was characterized by positive spatial interactions. Adults of several tree species facilitated saplings in their proximity; however, adults of dry-fruited species, but not those of fleshy-fruited ones, lost almost all positive interactions that occurred at the sapling stage. Besides, interaction strength between adults was positive and often significantly stronger if both species were fleshy-fruited. At the community level, the forests were structured into multispecies clumps across all life stages.</p> <p>4. Synthesis. Our analyses highlight the importance of the spatial legacy of seed dispersal and early recruitment in the assembly of plant communities. Particularly, animal seed dispersal can lead to multispecies clusters and positive spatial associations across life stages in Mediterranean forests, with surprisingly little signatures of negative interactions. Our analysis suggests that changes of the spatial structure across plant life stages are driven by seed dispersal mechanisms and subsequent spatial self-thinning, generating a spatial footprint at the sapling stage that conditions the long-term interactions between adult plants. Combining spatial point pattern analysis with network analysis and species traits is a promising way to disentangle the processes underlying observed patterns of local diversity. </p>
Plant and frugivore species characteristics drive frugivore contributions to seed dispersal effectiveness in a hyper-diverse community
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Data from: Seed-dispersal networks in tropical forest fragments: area effects, remnant species, and interaction diversity
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Forest cover and connectivity have pervasive effects on the maintenance of evolutionary distinct interactions in seed dispersal networks
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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: The effects of human-altered habitat spatial pattern on frugivory and seed dispersal: a global meta-analysis
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Legacy effects of seed dispersal mechanisms shape the spatial interaction network of plant species in Mediterranean forests
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Pre-dispersal seed predation obscures the detrimental effect of dust on wildflower reproduction - fruit data
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Pre-dispersal seed predation obscures the detrimental effect of dust on wildflower reproduction - flowering and egg phenology
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Data from: The timing of frugivore-mediated seed dispersal effectiveness
The seed dispersal effectiveness framework allows assessing mutualistic services from frugivorous animals in terms of quantity and quality. Quantity accounts for the number of seeds dispersed and quality for the probability of recruitment of dispersed seeds. Research on this topic has largely focused on the spatial patterns of seed deposition because seed fates often vary between microhabitats due to differences in biotic and abiotic factors. However, the temporal dimension has remained completely overlooked despite these factors – and even local disperser assemblages – can change dramatically during long fruiting periods. Here, we test timing effects on seed dispersal effectiveness, using as study case a keystone shrub species dispersed by frugivorous birds and with a fruiting period of nine months. We evaluated quantity and quality in different microhabitats of a Mediterranean forest and different periods of the fruiting phenophase. We identified the bird species responsible for seed deposition through DNA barcoding and evaluated the probability of seedling recruitment through a series of field experiments on sequential demographic processes. We found that timing matters: the disperser assemblage was temporally structured, seed viability decreased markedly during the plant's fruiting phenophase, and germination was lower for viable seeds dispersed in the fruiting peak. We show how small contributions to seed deposition by transient migratory species can result in a relevant effectiveness if they disperse seeds in a high-quality period for seedling recruitment. This study expands our understanding of seed dispersal effectiveness, highlighting the importance of timing and infrequent interactions for population and community dynamics.
Data from: Seed dispersal effectiveness by a large-bodied invasive species in defaunated landscapes
Animal-dispersed plants are increasingly reliant on effective seed dispersal provided by small-bodied frugivores in defaunated habitats. In the Neotropical region the non-native wild pig (Sus scrofa) is expanding its distribution and we hypothesized that they can be a surrogate for seed dispersal services lost by defaunation. We performed a thorough analysis of their interaction patterns, interaction frequencies, seed viability and characteristics of the seed shadows they produce. We found 15,087 intact seeds in 56% of the stomachs and 5186 intact seeds in 90% of the scats analyzed, 95% of which were smaller than 10 mm in diameter. Wild pigs were the third most effective disperser among 21 extant frugivore species in a feeding trail experiment in terms of quantity of seeds removed and gut retention time was 70 ±23 h, indicating they can promote long distance seed dispersal. Seed survival after seed handling and gut passage by wild pigs was positively related with seed size, but large seeds were spat out and only smaller were defecated intact, for which we observed a positive or neutral effect on germination relative to manually de-pulped seeds. Finally, deposition of seeds were four times more frequent in unsuitable than suitable sites for seedling recruitment and establishment. Seed dispersal effectiveness by wild pigs is high in terms of the quantity of seeds dispersed but variable in terms of the quality of the service provided. Our study highlights that negative and positive effects delivered by non-native species should be examined in a case by case scenario.
Data from: Scatterhoarders drive long- and short-term population dynamics of a nut-producing tree, while pre-dispersal seed predators and herbivores have little effect
1.Both seed predators and herbivores can have profound effects on individual plant growth, reproduction and survival, but their population level effects are less well understood. While most plants interact with a suite of seed predators and herbivores over their life cycle, few studies incorporate the effects of multiple interacting partners and multiple life stages on plant population growth. 2.We constructed a matrix model using six years of data from a rare, seed-producing population of American chestnut (Castanea dentata). We combined field demographic data with published experimental results on the effects of pre-dispersal seed predators (weevils) and post-dispersal seed predators (scatter-hoarding vertebrates) and incorporated the effect of vertebrate herbivores estimated from the field data. We explored the impact of these three different animal interactions for short-term (transient) and long-term (asymptotic) tree population growth. In addition, we used the model to explore the conditions under which scatter-hoarding would function as a mutualism. 3.Seed predators had greater effect on both short- and long-term population growth than herbivores. Although weevil infestation can greatly reduce the probability of germination, pre-dispersal seed predators had smaller effects on both short- or long-term population growth than post-dispersal predators. The elasticities of weevil-related parameters were also small. The effect of browsers on both the short- and long-term population growth rate were the smallest of the effects studied. Post-dispersal seed predation affected population growth the most of the interactions studied. The probability of seed removal was amongst the largest elasticities, similar in magnitude to survival of large trees. 4.Synthesis Our results indicate that neither weevils nor the intensity of browse damage observed at our study site are likely to hinder tree regeneration or reintroduction, though both reduced population growth. Although researchers and forest managers often assume that seeds are unimportant for long-lived tree populations, our test of this assumption shows that scatterhoarders and other post-dispersal seed consumers can significantly limit natural regeneration. Forest management that alters scatterhoarder behaviour could have significant effects on tree population dynamics that are largely unexplored.
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