Birds as ecosystem servants?

Submitted by editor on 4 September 2015.Get the paper!

            The main message of our study is related to the importance of diversified frugivorous bird assemblages driving diversified and complementary ecological services in the tropical forests. Studying three plant species and their fruit dispersers in a complex landscape we found a very interesting result. Frugivorous birds had complementary roles in the seed dispersal process. Diversified interactions with multiple disperser species can be adaptive in complex landscapes, where the complementary action of different frugivores can enhance establishment success by disseminating seeds along non-overlapping seed shadows. We conclude that the functional diversity of avian frugivores at the fruit removal stage consistently translates into effective establishment at the late seedling establishment stage. Yet the relative contribution to recruitment of some species (e.g., cracids, toucans, cotingids) is shaped by landscape heterogeneity and increases the complementarity of their effects.

            Successful regeneration and local population persistence of tree species in tropical forests are closely linked to the effective conservation of their frugivorous bird assemblages and the maintenance of diversified seed dispersal services. Our results underscore the importance of assessing how dispersal services provided by mutualistic frugivores play complementary, rather than redundant, roles in seed dispersal within heterogeneous landscapes. Moreover, this study highlights the value of functional diversity patterns of tropical frugivore assemblages and delayed effects of their interactions with plants. These findings are also important for landscapes where forests were severely fragmented and they reinforce the need to maintain the remaining areas to conserve the interactions among plants and their dispersers.

 

Figure 1. Adult, seed/fruit and seedling of Euterpe edulis 

Figure 2. Adult, seed/fruit and seedling of Sloanea guianensis

Figure 3. Adult, seed/fruit and seedling ofVirola bicuhyba ,Carlos Botelho State Park, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 

Débora Cristina Rother, Marco Aurélio Pizo and Pedro Jordano

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